Skyrim: Band of Thieves

"So... this is the Ragged Flagon." Capper remarked, keeping his voice low as he took in the area that Brynjolf wanted them to meet him in, where it looked like part of the sewer's cistern that had been modified to fit a tavern, without disrupting the rest of the sewer's functions, and discovered four alcoves, two to their right and two to the left, all of which were empty, causing him to sigh, "This is kind of what I was expecting, thanks to your stories from when you were a member... but part of me was hoping to see more than a few members."

"I know what you mean... it feels like there are fewer here than when I was a member." La'nari commented, because she could see Tonilia, Vex, and Delvin sitting among the various tables that were in the Flagon, while Dirge, the gruff imperial guard that was usually standing beside the tavern's sign, was not at his usual post, in fact he was near the bar with Vekel and Brynjolf, the latter wearing a black version of the Thieves Guild attire.

Capper glanced around as he stepped forward, walking into the Flagon as he studied everyone, and found that Vekel was of the opinion that the days of the Thieves Guild were nearing their end, that with no new recruits, plus their bad luck since none of them were completing jobs, it was only a matter of time until the Guild disbanded.

"Sorry Vekel, but this time you're wrong. I've never seen anyone like this before, and if I'm right he's already here." Brynjolf said, where Capper could see that everyone was focused on him, La'nari, and Tri Ki, while at the same time he assumed that the thief in question was smiling, because they had just done what had been deemed impossible, causing him to turn and show them that he was, in fact, smiling, "Color me really impressed now. With all the problems we've been having I wasn't certain that we'd see you, or your friends, again... and yet here you are, standing before us."

"Not to boast or anything, but getting here was incredibly easy." Capper replied, which was the truth, in fact he was sure he could have done it on his own, and it wasn't due to the fact that he was now a Daedric Prince, rather it was due to his skills and how weak the targets in the Ratway had been, his natural skills would have won the day anyway.

"You know, after seeing you in action earlier, I can believe that... you really are quite the star recruit." Brynjolf said, which just confirmed what he thought when he witnessed Capper's skills in the market, he was a born thief and his skills were what the Guild needed if they wanted to survive, he was the key to turning everything around, "Before I fully welcome you into the Thieves Guild, there's one more small job I want you to perform, so we can verify the rest of your skills... do this right and I can promise you that even Mercer will agree to let you, all three of you, into the Guild."

La'nari knew that this would likely involve heading out into the city and doing something to some of the merchants, that was what she and plenty of others had done, even though she had only messed with one person before joining the Guild, and she knew Capper would no doubt ace this job as well.

"Very well, tell me what you need me to do and I'll show you my skills." Capper replied, because the only other skill that a thief could be tested on was their speechcraft, their ability to speak to others and persuade them, even get better prices from the merchants of the land, since Brynjolf had tested everything else so far.

"Simple: I need you to talk to three deadbeats... those being Keerava, Bersi Honey-Hand, and Haelga... and collect a payment that they owe us." Brynjolf stated, where he could see that Capper was already considering his moves on how to gather the gold from the people he had just mentioned, meaning he had to be right about how the cat would fit in with the rest of the Thieves Guild, and he was sure Mercer would agree with him, "I'll be honest, the debt is secondary... the real reason behind this job is to get the point across that we're not to be messed with or ignored, you just need to find a way to convince them to hand over their payments that will send a message to the rest of the city. A word of warning, though, I don't want any of them killed."

Capper nodded, as killing people in cities meant less targets for the Guild to steal from in the future, as the rest of the Guild members walked to their tables to relax, before he asked if Brynjolf had any information on his targets, since it would help him get the job done. As it turned out he had some information that could be useful, as Bersi had an urn in his shop that was of dwarven make, something he claimed was 'priceless' despite how common they were, and Brynjolf's recommendation on the matter was just to break the ugly thing and be done with it. For Haelga his information was about the Dibella statue that was in her bunkhouse, as she was a devout follower of the Divine in question and dotted over the statue, so using it against her might be the key to getting her payment, though when the discussion turned to Keerava, however, Capper decided not to listen to Brynjolf's suggestion. It was due to the fact that his suggestion was to approach the argonian that was in love with her, who also worked at The Bee and Barb, and convince Talen-Jei to hand over information that would force Keerava into handing over her payment, a line Capper didn't feel like crossing at the moment.

With the information in hand Capper decided that it was time to head back up to the main streets and see if he could use it to gain the payments that Brynjolf was after, where it didn't take them long to get back to the market and found that the others were just browsing at the moment, which was perfectly fine.

"So, what are we going to do?" La'nari asked, because she knew that Capper was different from the other thieves she had come across, even though she agreed that he was the best recruit Brynjolf could ask for, and suspected that he had a plan to deal with the targets he had been given, in a way to not piss them off.

"Simple, we're going to take their prized possessions. Nothing screams 'Thieves Guild' like stealing a priceless or personal item, like the urn and statue." Capper replied, it was simple when he thought about it, they were a guild that specialized in stealing things and being sneaky, so punching people to send a message seemed just plain wrong, and he suspected that if two of the three were hit the third might surrender without him having to do anything, "Then I'll approach them and tell the targets if they don't want anything else stolen they'll pay on time."

La'nari had to admit that it sounded far easier than what Brynjolf likely had in mind, because it would make the merchants and people fear the Thieves Guild again, which was the whole point of the mission he had been given, though as she quickly nodded her head Capper had both of them cover their faces with their hoods. This would ensure that the merchants would only know that the Guild was behind the thefts and not any single person, before he focused on their first target, which was The Pawned Prawn, which happened to be when a lady, Bersi's wife to be exact, exited the shop and headed into the market for a time. This was good for Capper, since it meant that there were fewer obstacles for him to worry about, causing him and his companions to enter the small shop and quickly discovered that Bersi, the nord owner, was alone right now, and as he turned to face them it took no time to locate the dwarven urn. The target was right across from where the trade bench was located, so Bersi could stare at his 'priceless' artifact all day when he had no customers to worry about, though Capper kept his head lowered as he pointed out an item on the shelf behind the nord, causing Bersi to look away for a few seconds.

It was in the following seconds that La'nari removed the dwarven urn from it's resting place and handed it to Tri Ki, where the kobold scurried outside, so when Bersi turned his attention back to the customers he discovered that it was missing, all while Capper and La'nari played at being innocent.

"M... My urn! Where did it go?" Bersi remarked, his voice already trembling as he realized that the object was gone, and if he had paid for it that was gold down the drain now, before he glanced at the pair that was in front of him and realized that one of them might be able to help him out, "Do you know where my urn went?"

"I do: it was stolen by the Thieves Guild, who also have a message. That message is that bad things will happen if you don't pay on time." Capper replied, where he pulled out a coin and flipped it for a moment as the nord glanced at him, before also glancing at the figure that was behind him, as if he was trying to figure out which of them had stolen the urn so he could call the guards on them, which wouldn't work since he hadn't witnessed the event in question, "You don't want anything else of value to be stolen, do you? Pay on time and you won't have to worry about receiving more visits like this."

Bersi paused for a moment as he considered his options, on one hand he could say no and the thieves would keep coming, but on the other he could just give in and hope no more thugs came to his shop, causing him to sigh as he handed over a bag of gold and told them to get out, he wanted nothing more to do with them. Capper found that it was a hundred gold, which was definitely a safety payment, causing him to collect the small bag before he and La'nari withdrew from the shop, but with their hoods up, and the fact that they could change clothes, he knew Bersi would forget about them and would no doubt take their business in the future. With that in mind they found that Tri Ki had retreated to an area near the building that Haelga ran, away from the guards, where she held the urn up and Capper smiled as he rubbed her head and told her that she had done a good job, before taking the object and warped it back to his realm. He was sure someone in his realm would be fascinated by the dwarven item, a common one based on what he had gathered, but once that was done he and the rest of his trio entered the Bunkhouse to hit their second target.

Sure enough they found that the place was empty, in fact the lower floor of the structure seemed to be devoid of people at the moment, not even Haelga was nearby, giving them a chance to explore for a few moments, before Capper located a very important statue on a place of importance, one that seemed to be a mix of silver and gold, though he held a hand out and it disappeared, landing in the pile of treasure in his realm.

"You three looking for something?" Haelga asked, because after claiming the statue they had returned to the counter, only to find that the female nord they were looking for had been in her room the entire time, likely working on the ledger for her business before realizing that customers might be present.

"We're just here to warn you of what happens when people don't pay the Thieves Guild: you end up losing things of value that are hard to replace." Capper replied, which was the moment that Haelga realized that he was talking about something inside the actual Bunkhouse and she walked over to the area the statue had been in, only to discover that her Dibella statue was missing, causing her to look at them, "You don't want anything else stolen... right?"

Haelga growled for a moment before sighing as she tracked down a small bag of gold and tossed it at Capper, who quickly made sure that the hundred gold coins were inside before nodding his head, allowing them to leave the Bunkhouse so they could head across the way to head into The Bee and Barb. Sure enough he found that it was somewhat busy, as there were a number of patrons from the houses at the various tables, though Keerava, the female argonian who owned this place, was behind the bar, which seemed to be what most of the owners of the inns and taverns did. Interestingly enough she already had the payment ready, no doubt after hearing Bersi come in and tell her to be ready for thieves coming to extort money from her, and the mere mention of Brynjolf's name caused her to hand it over without delay. With the third bag in hand, and it also had a hundred gold inside it, Capper and the others departed from the inn before heading back down into the Ratway without delay, as it was time to give their acquaintance the goods news.

Sure enough they found Brynjolf in the same place they had left him in, in fact Capper was sure the nord had been waiting patiently for their return and his smile from earlier was still on his face, no doubt assuming that Capper had done the job in no time at all.

"Jobs done. Here's the payments." Capper stated, handing Brynjolf the three bags that had been handed to him, where he found that the thief made a quick check to be sure everything was in order, meaning some of the other thieves might have skimmed in the past and he was just making sure he wouldn't have that problem with Capper.

"Well done, you are proving to be a sound investment, lad." Brynjolf replied, where he handed over a small bag of potions, a reward for the job no doubt, which Capper took without delay, causing the man to beckon for them to follow him, because he knew the trio wanted into the Guild and he was willing to show them to their destiny, "As you know the Guild has been in a downward spiral lately, everyone has been failing jobs and we've been losing gold... even Mercer, our best, failed a job not a few days ago, so be careful what you say to him, as he's been in a foul mood. However, I can assure you that with your skills you will be making far more gold than you'll know what to spend it on... and hearing of your exploits might be enough to get everyone else to push themselves to do better."

Capper nodded as they were brought to a secret passage behind a cabinet, one that brought them to an actual cistern that looked like it had been modified to house a large group of thieves, where he found Mercer, who was definitely annoyed by something, standing in the middle of the area, with a few other thieves hanging out around the outer ring.

"Mercer, these are the ones I mentioned earlier... our new recruits." Brynjolf stated, something that caused the breton thief to turn towards them for a moment, though Capper had to wonder how his last couple of missions had gone since he no longer had the Skeleton Key in his possession, since that seemed to be how Mercer was so successful.

"Yes, so you've told me. I can only that this isn't another waste of the Guild's dwindling resources." Mercer remarked, which made sense due to the fact that the Guild was suffering and most of the thieves were failing to do their jobs, leading to a loss in wealth and contacts, which explained why they had no respect in Riften, while at the same time Brynjolf glanced at his boss for a few seconds, like a silent exchange was taking place, before he sighed and turned towards Capper, "There is one thing I want to make perfectly clear before we continue: if you play by the rules, you'll walk away rich... if you break the rules, well, you lose your share. There will be no debates and no discussions... you do what we say, when we say. Am I clear?"

"Of course. Everyone has rules they live by, and so do guilds, so it makes sense to follow them." Capper replied, though he did think it was odd that the Guild was of the opinion that if you screwed up a job you wouldn't be able to explain yourself, especially if you did it right and some other force screwed you over, but decided not to raise that point.

Mercer seemed to maul this over for a few seconds before stating that he had a job that would allow Capper to show them his expertise, since Brynjolf was so sure of his abilities, and Brynjolf even mentioned Goldenglow, the estate that was right outside Riften and happened to be positioned on a small island in the middle of the lake. According to the information he had to give him Goldenglow Estate was critically important to one of the Guild's largest clients, Maven no doubt, but recently the owner took matters into his own hands and shut them out, meaning he needed to be taught a lesson. Brynjolf was then tasked with giving him the rest of the details, where he learned that it was a bee farm, of all things, a wood elf called Aringoth owned the place, and Capper's task was to burn three of the hives and steal the contents of the safe that was somewhere inside the estate. Brynjolf also told him that Aringoth had replaced the Riften guards that had been on his land with a band of mercenaries, who nearly killed Vex when she was sent in to do the job, so fighting his way into the estate wasn't an option, not unless Capper wanted to die an early death.

Capper also spent some time chatting with the other key members of the Guild, such as Vex, the female imperial thief that seemed to always be in a bad mood, or Delvin Mallory, an older breton thief, who believed that an entity had cursed them, hence the state the Guild was in. Capper thought it was funny that the others were so quick to dismiss Delvin's comment, as the Daedric Princes existed and had some presence in Nirn, usually cultists and followers, so it wasn't hard to imagine that one had been annoyed by something the Guild had done and cursed them accordingly. Delvin did have something he found to be interesting, that if they did enough side jobs in a city someone in that city would, eventually, contact him and set up a personal job, and if someone from the Guild succeeded in completing that job they would gain influence in the city that had hired them. Capper assumed it was something like their arrangement with Maven, if they had her backing, which she might reward the Guild with if they did this job for her, they could get away with things in Riften, and if they had someone like one of the families in Whiterun in their pocket they could do the same in Whiterun.

One other thing he did was check in with Tonilia, as he could now officially use her services as a fence without having to track down someone from the Guild to talk to her, because she had a set of armor for him, though it really wasn't for him since he and La'nari already had their own Guild armor.

"Tri Ki, come over here." Capper said, where Tonilia watched as the kobold approached him for a moment, leading to Capper slipping the gloves over her hands before they watched as the material shrunk down to fit her hands, causing her to flex her hand and fingers for a moment before both of them grinned as Capper helped her into the rest of the outfit, each piece of it shrinking and changing to match her body, while the boots became more like wraps around her feet, until she looked like a full Guild member, "That's good to know, armor and gear shrinks to fit a kobold's body."

La'nari nodded, as this told Capper that he could just obtain a lot of armor and hand them out to the other kobolds, giving them something to wear that wasn't rags, meaning it was something they could focus on in the future, once they were done with the current job. With this information in hand Capper departed from the Flagon and headed back to the surface level of Riften, because all he could do for the time being was just stake out the estate from afar as he came up with a plan of attack to fulfill the requirements that Brynjolf had set for them. As it turned out the sun was starting to set, meaning night would be upon everyone soon, which was great timing when he thought about it, and he found that Rarity's group had retreated to the inn for the time being, no doubt looking for leads on jobs to do when they left the city. Following that he headed out onto the docks and found that a few argonians were making their way into the city, for dinner and rest most likely, though this did allow him and the others to stare out at the two story estate that wasn't too far from where Riften was located.

Capper found that there was one way into the estate's area, that being the bridge connecting it to the main road that he and the others used to reach Riften, a bridge they had passed by previously, but Vex's information suggested that there was one other way to the backdoor, a sewer path by a hidden grate, before he glanced back at La'nari for a moment.

"Oh no, this is your moment. Show the Guild what you're made of." La'nari said, as she suspected that he was going to ask for her opinion on the matter, but Mercer wanted to see what he was capable of and she knew he was going to be surprised with the show he would soon learn about.

Capper smiled as Tri Ki decided to join him, as this was their show, to which he made his way to the gate they used when he and the others traveled between Treva's Watch and Riften, following it for a short period of time until he located the area that held the apiaries that were their targets, as there were six of them. His reason for doing this was because there were no mercenaries in that particular area, rather they had a single wooden wall around where the apiaries were located, which was a smart move since it helped them and prevented archers from damaging the structures, but it also helped him out. With that in mind he had the kobold get on his back before he crouched low and then leapt forward, like a ninja moving across the surface of the water or a frog leaping from point to point, and he stopped when he reached the rocky ledge of the area that his targets were in. Following that he jumped on the rocks for a few seconds and reached the backside of the wall, where he and Tri Ki carefully looked at the area, to be sure that the mercenaries were unaware of their presence, which was when Capper held out his left hand and summoned flames into his hand, a perk of unlocking his magic he guessed.

Such a thing allowed him to set fire to three of the apiaries, just as requested, and once that was done he quickly dismissed the magic and went back behind the wooden wall, where they found that most of the mercenaries in the outside area were on their way to check out the flames. With that in mind he found a path of shadows to slip through so he could reach a short wooden walkway that brought him to the front of the house, but he ignored it and headed towards the back, which just so happened to be looking in the direction of Riften. As Tri Ki climbed off his back Capper unlocked the door and they stepped inside, both crouching as they entered the structure, though he handed the kobold a couple of lockpicks and she nodded, because while they looked for the safe both of them were going to rob Aringoth blind. Of course they had to be careful, due to the fact that there were some mercenaries inside the estate as well, though Capper suspected that none of them would even know they were in the building, especially since it was night out and the mercenaries would likely be falling asleep in the near future.

As they sneaked their way through the estate, however, Capper found that the mercenaries seemed to enjoy playing gold all over the place, as there were coins in drawers, dressers, and in pouches hidden behind other items, plus there were a few chests to unlock and a knapsack to loot, earning them a fair amount of gold coins, a gem or two, and a few potions to add to the collection.

Eventually the main floor emptied out as the mercenaries were made aware of the flames outside, so it was all hands on deck to make sure the flames were contained, and no one noticed anything was amiss since Capper and Tri Ki hid in what appeared to be a basement, after unlocking an iron grated door and closing it a moment later. Part of him wanted to see if the safe was down in the basement, though he had Tri Ki stand guard over the entrance, and out of sight, as he made his way to the stairs leading to the second floor, where he suspected Aringoth might be hiding. He found a few areas that had a fair bit of gold, a small pile of it was on a table he passed by and looted, though the mercenaries on this floor were tired and falling asleep at their posts, in fact some were asleep, meaning it was far too easy for him to make his way to Aringoth's locked room. It was a simple matter for him to unlock the door and enter the room, where he found the wood elf hiding off in the corner, appearing to be in the middle of making himself look like he wasn't noticeable at all, where Capper sighed as he ignored Aringoth, because he wasn't paying attention and that made it easy to loot his room.

In the end he made off with quite a lot of gold, a number of gemstones, a bee statue that was interesting, and he even stole the elven bow from Aringoth, right off his back without the wood elf noticing, though he ignored the keys that were likely for both the safe and the door leading to the basement. With his visit to Aringoth's room complete Capper retraced his steps to the iron grated door and opened it once he was ready to move on, finding that Tri Ki had been left alone without anyone even noticing that she was down there, but once they were together again they opened the door and moved forward once more. Capper wasn't surprised to find a few more mercenaries down in the basement, which was where a lot of furniture was being stored, but for the most part it looked like the people down here were drunk, no doubt doing so where Aringoth wouldn't bother them. With that in mind it didn't take them long to find a series of turns that eventually brought them to a drunk mercenary in a chair, who they bypassed with ease, before heading down some stairs and reached an area with a safe, a chest, and a door heading into the sewers.

He found that it didn't take him long to loot the two locked containers, their locks meant nothing to him, but he did find an odd note that indicated that Goldenglow Estate had been sold, with 'Gulum-Ei' working as an agent for the buyer, and it had an odd symbol on it, something that made Capper smile as he wondered what the Guild would make of this information and wondered what future jobs they might have in store for him.