Skyrim: Band of Thieves

It didn't take Capper and Tri Ki long to return to the area of the docks that La'nari was standing in, especially since he had found that the secret passage inside the estate's basement had, in fact, gone into the sewer Vex had told him about and he had used a ladder to leave, before crossing the water rapidly like he had done before. Once they caught up with La'nari it was easy to see that a few of the Riften guards, those that were the night shift no doubt, were looking in the direction of the estate and could see the flames from the three burning apiaries, and he suspected they were surprised by this discovery, that the area was hit. Since no one seemed to be interested in talking to them Capper slipped back into Riften with Tri Ki and La'nari following after him, where they made their way over to the small graveyard and he tapped the button that was on the larger grave, in the alcove that made it seem like someone important was buried here. He was still surprised by how silent the secret entrance to the Guild really was, and the fact that no one seemed to be in the area right now, allowing them to head into the short underground passage before carefully closing the passage behind them, so no one walked in on the Guild at the wrong moment.

Of course since it was night out the Guild members that were in the Cistern were asleep, save for Brynjolf and Mercer by the looks of things, as the former was standing in the center of the area and the latter was by his desk, sitting down and having a drink as he went over the numbers.

"Word from our man in the guard is that Goldenglow has been hit." Brynjolf commented, speaking once the trio were right in front of him, while at the same time it looked like he was pleased with the work that had been done, since he had a smile on his face, like he knew they would have succeeded where everyone else had failed, a sign that things were changing, "You got the goods, right?"

"Of course. This was in the safe." Capper replied, handing over the bill of sale that he and Tri Ki had found in the safe, while he kept the gold to himself since that didn't seem relevant right now, as the information that the estate had been sold was far more important than anything else that was going on at the moment, "There's a symbol on it that I don't recognize."

"I don't recognize it either... you know, I thought Aringoth was foolish, but cutting Maven out of a deal just makes him stupid, since it'll only enrage her." Brynjolf said, though at the same time it made him wonder what the wood elf was even thinking, as this seemed far outside the box for him, before he noticed the look on Capper's face and chuckled as he handed over a bag of gold, his payment for doing the job as specified, "You did well, lad, and proved that I was right to trust you. You'll find that the others will be more accepting of you and your friends, and both Vex and Delvin will have the odd job to give you, to help return the Guild to it's former glory. Now, there is something else for you: Maven sent word that she wanted to speak to you in The Bee and Barb."

"Ah, more business. Good, I shall speak with her immediately." Capper said, because he suspected that it was time for her to set her plan with Mallus in motion, meaning Maven would no doubt be sending someone to Whiterun to get the details and then complete the job, which should be interesting when he considered what it might mean.

Brynjolf knew that Capper's group had worked with Maven before, which meant that he knew this could be a good job for both him and the Guild, and understood that failure wasn't an option anymore, causing him to nod as the cat headed back out through the hidden entrance, his companions following after him. Capper, La'nari, and Tri Ki discovered something that really made Capper question the intelligence of people as a whole, because as they headed out into the market he spotted someone in Thieves Guild armor trying to break into the smithy, of all places. As it turned out they weren't the only ones that had noticed such a thing, as a guard started calling out 'thief' as she, it was a female guard, loosed arrows at him, striking the thief as he realized he had been busted, though he perished after taking an arrow to the head. Capper then noticed that the guard didn't seem to care about recovering any potentially stolen loot, to which he walked over and found an elven dagger on the corpse, along with a pouch of gold, some impressive silver silverware, a few low quality gems, and a golden soul gem since he died in the radius that surrounded Capper.

"So that's part of the reason the Guild is failing... even the newcomers are being picked off like they're nothing." La'nari said, because this was bad news, that all of the new recruits were being caught in the act and were being put down by the guards, though as she said that Capper recovered the armor of the slain thief and transported it back to his realm, along with the new gem that he would awaken at a later date.

Capper sighed for a moment, as this wasn't something he wanted to discover right now, before heading into The Bee and Barb, where he noticed that a number of patrons were still enjoying themselves, causing him to head back upstairs, where he found Maven in the place that they had talked in several times before, with her usual expression on her face.

"Capper, we meet again... it is disappointing that you can't do my jobs to my specifications, but will do well for the Guild you have joined." Maven remarked, though Capper refrained from lashing out at her, because she was the one constantly taking from the payments that he and the others rightly earned, especially since they met her demands on time and to what would satisfy anyone else, but he remained calm and collected.

"I am the best at what I do, and I fulfill my duties to the letter." Capper replied, making no move to do away with Maven while her guard was apparently down, as he had plans for her and he wanted to make sure the board was stacked against her before he made his move, and he made a little move as he lowered his head a tiny bit, "Do not worry, whatever problems you had before will be a thing of the past."

"I would hope not, because this job is more important than the others. You see, I have a competitor called Honningbrew Meadery that I would like to see be put out of business." Maven said, where Capper realized that she was likely talking about the meadery they had passed when they entered Whiterun in the past, as it was the only other meadery he happened to know about, and he remained silent as she fully explained what she wanted from him, "In addition to that I want to know how in the world Sabjorn got it up and running so quickly... I should have stopped him years ago, before he took his bile to market and took a chunk of my profits. When you get to Whiterun, speak to Mallus, he'll fill you in on all the details... and let me make one thing clear: screw this job up and you'll be spending the rest of the Fourth Era in prison."

Capper told her that there would be no problems and that he would depart first thing in the morning, as if to indicate that he had some preparations he had to make first, which was the truth as he departed from the inn and simply took in Riften for a time, as there was something he wanted to do before they left. This time around he let La'nari and Tri Ki spend some time with the others, even though they would be leaving once morning arrived, which allowed him to focus on the magic that he was currently thinking of using, something to help them travel fast from one city to another. He was thinking to the area of his new domain that had nine arches, as he had realized that he had created it to form nine portals, one to each of the main Holds, meaning he and his kobolds could travel from one Hold, stop in the Opulent Lands for a short time, and then head into another Hold's city without wasting time. With that in mind he was moving the portal outside the city to a place that was inside Riften, and right now the best thing he could think about for placement was near the small house that was to the left of the bunkhouse, as it seemed like no one lived there and would make a good place for the gate.

With that in mind Capper used his power to move the portal they had used earlier and placed it on the side of the house that no one owned, because as far as he could tell no one came this way and none of the guards looked here, so it was out of the way and no one would even know it was there, and to be sure it worked he stepped through it, reappearing in his realm, in the area the nine arches were resting in.

"I know you have plans for her, my Prince, but are you really okay with her talking down to you like that?" Ithelia asked, as she knew about the nine arches, because Capper had explained his plan to link the nine Holds together with a set of special portals, even if it was just for him, his companions, and the kobolds to use, but she didn't like Maven for multiple reasons, all of which her Prince knew about.

"She's important for the Thieves Guild... for now. I'll remove her when the time is right." Capper replied, because he knew that all of the other Princes, from what he had learned since arriving in this world, would either find Maven to be amusing or be infuriated by her attitude towards them and smite her on the spot, but he had other plans right now, before he sighed as he rubbed the back of his head, "Keep an eye on Riften and wake me when it's early morning... I need some sleep before I worry about this job."

Ithelia nodded her head without wasting time as Capper took up residence in one of the nearby houses, where she returned to tending to the other kobolds while keeping an eye on the city in question, knowing that her Prince had plans and that he would be awakened at the time he had specified.

When morning arrived Capper returned to Riften and found that the others were getting ready as well, though in addition to that he found that Ithelia had returned their carriage to them, it was outside the southern gate, and once everyone had a bite to eat they got on the carriage before departing from Riften again.

"So, as you might have heard, we're heading to Whiterun, as Maven gave me another job... this one for the Guild." Capper said, though at the same time he and the others sipped on their drinks as La'nari directed the horse down the familiar path, which would bring them to their old fort for a couple of seconds, and he could see that Tri Ki was excited to continue their hard work, even though Capper knew there would be more work when they got back, "We're going to head to the city, I'm going to speak with our contact, and then I'll get the job done... maybe while we're there Azure can see out the Companions and try to join their ranks."

"That's nice, darling, though I'm surprised that you want to travel slowly to Whiterun, given your... new powers and what we saw earlier." Rarity stated, because she was still thinking about the creation of a new realm and what the Princesses back home might think about someone like Capper gaining such a power, even though they'd be more focused on the power and what he had done with it, "Given that this job seems incredibly important, well, I'm just surprised that you didn't want to just open a portal to Whiterun and get it over with."

"That would be far too easy... and besides, I don't have portals in the other Holds." Capper replied, something that caused La'nari and Midnight to nod their heads in agreement, because there had been only one portal in the Opulent Lands, even though there had been nine portal frames, something that allowed the others to sort of understand what he was talking about, "I could probably warp to the cities on my own, but that is also too easy. So the plan is simple: we're going to travel to each Hold, like we did in the past, and while we're in each city I'll find a good area to set up a hidden portal that will be connected to the arches you saw earlier. Such a thing will allow us to move from place to place much easier, but for the time being I think traveling like normal people would be nice... besides, we might find some more spell tomes for you to read, might discover some more bandits to take out, maybe acquire some blood so you can feed."

"Basically we can do more things while on the road." La'nari stated, showing that she understood Capper more now, since it was possible that they would find more enemies to take out, acquire more loot to obtain for his realm and find more items for the rest of the kobolds, and she agreed that this would allow Rarity to feed and potentially gain new powers, if they were lucky to find a mage.

What was interesting to Capper was that there was something that stopped them about halfway to where their old fort was located, there happened to be a trio of robe wearing individuals, the type that a Vigilant of Stendarr would wear, that just so happened to call them over once they realized the group was passing by. In the next moment they discovered three dead bodies that had been looted of everything of value, save for their underwear as Capper found that it was one man and two women who lost their lives, before they noticed that the three fake Vigilants had familiar glowing eyes. Rarity was the first one to move, getting off the carriage as everyone reacted to the vampires that were in front of them, where she got behind one of them and sunk her fangs into the vampire's neck, causing the creature to gasp in surprise as she drained his blood, all while Capper had the others pin the other two vampires to the ground. The reason for that was because Capper knew that vampires had strong magical powers and that letting Rarity feed on all three of them had multiple benefits, as in it would let her sate her thirst, it would give her new magic to use, the trio would drop golden soul gems, and they could use the robes for the magically talented kobolds.

Of course he knew that Rarity didn't want to become addicted to blood, like some of the vampires that existed in the lands, but for the most part it seemed like she was focused on the power she might be able to obtain, though once she was done, and Capper had collected the golden soul gems from the vampires and the gold pouches from the dead Vigilants, Rarity made sure to burn the bodies.

"I know they're already vampires, but... better safe than sorry." Rarity remarked, because while they understood some of the rules of this world she knew that there were still rules they didn't know, especially since Capper was now a Prince, causing her to hold a hand to her face as she considered things for a couple of seconds, "Wouldn't want them to come back after all of that, so I reduced them to ashes as well... though after all of that it feels like my back is itching like crazy."

Capper raised an eyebrow as he decided to help Rarity out, where he had her turn around as she shifted her robes, enough for him to see what might be causing the itch without having her completely exposing herself, and what he discovered was that there now appeared to be a tattoo of sorts on her back, which hadn't been there before.

"It would seem that you've gained some sort of tattoo, in the form of a large pair of bat wings." Capper commented, running his hand over the icon for a moment and found that it wasn't like anything else he had seen, rather it seemed magical, as if the wings were actually sealed in her back or something, which caused her to wonder what in the world was going on right now, "I would hazard that you're developing as a unique vampire, and that eventually you'll develop actual wings... which I'm sure you'll be able to hide in this tattoo so you can blend in with people."

"So we have a unique vampire, a Daedric Prince, a bunch of kobolds... what's next? A primal werewolf?" La'nari asked, as it seemed like the group was just attracting all sorts of unique individuals, especially when she considered what was waiting in Capper's realm and what little she knew about the rest of Oblivion, before she sighed as she realized she would be seeing all of the madness the group would be getting up to in the future.

Capper chuckled a little, as there was so much in this world that could be found and obtained, and other powers to gain for the others, though after double checking the area for anything of value he returned to the carriage as they got underway once more, following the path that would bring them back to Whiterun. As they did that, however, Capper was amused to find that Aela was wrapping up a job in an area ahead of them, apparently having come to the mill that rested between the city and Treva's Watch, because of a bear that had gotten in where it was unwelcome. Capper and Azure offered her a ride back to Whiterun, since they were already heading in that direction, and she took it without delay, as the ride would allow her a chance to rest before she reported her success to the rest of the Companions, which she and Azure talked about, as she knew the figure was interested in her guild. At the same time Aela noticed Tri Ki sitting with the group and decided that she could ask about the creature later, since right now it seemed to be passive or even friendly, and it was her first time seeing such a being, meaning there would be a lot for them to talk about.

As it turned out there didn't seem to be much in the way of dangers for them to worry about, though Capper did discover an interesting fact as a pair of spiders tried to attack them, they, too, produced golden soul gems upon death, but this time he noticed that the energy inside their gems was different than those that came from mortals. Such a thing made him wonder if he could populate his land with animals and creatures, reborn in a more opulent form, where he suspected that the pair of spiders might be more akin to crystals while producing crystalline thread, while other animals might have more pristine pelts and additions that made them different from their mortal counterparts. He determined to collect a few more golden soul gems from the other creatures of the world, since it would be interesting to experiment with them in the future, but for the time being he focused on the road as La'nari directed them towards Helgen. It was the quickest route to get to Whiterun, even if the area had been wiped out by the black dragon they had seen previously, which would allow them to track down Mallus again and get the show on the road, plus it would allow Capper to set up another portal for quick transport between the two cities and his realm.

Since there turned out to be no enemies on the road, thanks to them clearing out the threats the last time they came this way, La'nari was able to get them to Helgen without wasting too much time, where they found that the ruined town was still bare, no bandits have moved in and no one had made an attempt to reclaim the place.

With that in mind they continued through the other gateway and headed back down the path to Riverwood, finding that they could just relax and make themselves ready for what the future held in store for them, since there didn't seem to be any foes in the area. Capper figured it was partly their fault, since this was the path they took to get to Whiterun, and there was the guards of Riverwood to thank as well, since he was sure that they were patrolling the area and eliminating targets that could do harm to the village, as per their orders. Riverwood seemed to be just fine as they made their way through one of the gates, though the guards spotted Aela and nodded their heads, showing them that the Companions were well respected and were usually admitted through areas without having to stop, making Capper wonder if Azure joining the guild might work to their benefit in the future, if he joined the Companions anyway. Other than that there wasn't much else getting in their way, so they were able to get through the rest of the path that could bring them to the meadery and, eventually, the city itself, and when the group rounded the corner it was easy for them to see their targets once more.

Capper found himself smiling as they continued towards Whiterun, as he was eager to see what the new job had to offer him and the others, plus he was interested in seeing if Azure would try to join the Companions while he was dealing with Maven's job, which caused him to look forward to what the immediate future had in store for him and his companions.