Skyrim: Band of Thieves

While the Guild members were returning to the Cistern, and the areas they normally worked in, Capper quickly returned to his realm for a few moments and was joined by both Ithelia and Mora, where the three of them stood over the box that had formed after they created the Storian. Sure enough it looked like the box recognized the rule that they had agreed on, that all three of them had to be in agreement on what to do with the quill, to which the box opened and he slipped the Storian inside it, and once his hand had been pulled out the seals engaged. He and pair stared at the unique silver and black box for a moment before he noticed that it actually looked like a picture frame from another viewpoint, though once it was inside the container he tried to open the box and confirmed that it wouldn't open for just him. In fact he found that Ithelia and Mora did the same thing, they tried to open the container on their own and found that nothing happened, meaning they had to be in agreement for it to open, just as Capper intended.

"Good, now the Storian is safe and sound." Capper commented, where he picked the container up and started to head over towards his Vault, an area that only he could enter, causing the pair to watch as he slipped through the barrier without delay and he set it down on the pedestal that had once been where Ithelia's essence had been floating, before he returned to the others for a moment, "And I've stored it in a place that only I can access, so you don't have to worry about anyone heading into the Vault and taking it from us."

"What will you do now?" Mora inquired, because while she knew that the Guild was no longer in danger, thanks to Capper taking out Mercer and pinning all of the blame on him, it was hard to tell if he was going to focus on being a Prince now or if there was more in Skyrim he wanted to do, yet she found that she did not care in the slightest, rather she was interested in the potential knowledge the new Prince might uncover.

"There is still work to be done to restore the Guild to it's former glory, contacts that must be reestablished, fences that must be found... plus Gallus' pet project seemed interesting." Capper replied, because from what he had seen of the plans that had been on the table it sure looked like whatever Gallus had been working on had been interesting, and he was sure one of the other thieves was likely looking over them right now in a way to see if they could claim the items and restore the Guild to it's former glory, "I'll probably be busy for a day or two, but it'll be worth it in the end... oh, that reminds me: Mora, I've found a few of these red gemstones. Do you know what they are?"

He pulled out the pair of glowing red gems he had recovered so far and let the Prince of Knowledge study them for a time, where she identified them as some of the Stones of Barenziah, which were pried from Barenziah's crown, and there were twenty-four of them in total, meaning he had to find twenty-two more. Fortunately she knew where a number of the other stones were located, no doubt thanks to some of the mortals she had interacted with or the knowledge she had gleamed over the years, which Capper found were represented as glowing red marks on his map. She also provided him with a couple of blue icons, the potential locations of the remaining Aetherium Shards, the blue crystalline shard that was in the heart of his vault, something that caused him to smile for a moment as he thought about claiming more of the precious material. As it turned out Mora didn't seem to care about forcing him to pay for the information, rather he was sure that she was secretly hoping he would find more knowledge that was unknown to the world so she could add it to her library.

With that in mind he returned to Riften and found that the Guild had definitely returned to the Cistern and the Flagon, where he did the same thing without delay, because there was more that needed to be done before the Guild was restored to it's former glory and he was eager to see what the others had to say on this matter.

"So, now that Mercer has been taken care of, and Maven believes that every wrongdoing she experienced was his fault and not ours, what do we do next?" Capper asked, where he could see Brynjolf, Karliah, Vex, and Delvin were talking around the table that Mercer used to stand around whenever he was in the Cistern, while the rest of the thieves were discussing their next jobs or what they would do now that Maven was no longer focusing on them.

"Capper... I will get straight to the point: ever since you arrived we've been talking about potentially making you the newest Guild Master of the Thieves Guild... even Karliah, who barely knows you, agrees." Brynjolf stated, which told him that Karliah must have been watching them for quite a while as she put her plan into motion, to try and ensnare Mercer, something that caused him to sigh as he rubbed the back of his head for a few moments, while both Vex and Delvin seemed to be mostly indifferent and Karliah had a bit of a smile on her face, "I mean, you proved to be more of a thief than even Mercer had been before his demise, your skills are far beyond what his had been, and we've already pulled in more coin from the jobs you've done than what he's pulled in recently. However, there are a few things we need to address before we make you our Guild Master, namely restoring our presence in the other four major Holds of Skyrim: Whiterun, Markarth, Windhelm, and Solitude. In addition to that there is something Karliah would like to ask you about... it's a more private nature."

Capper raised an eyebrow and nodded his understanding, allowing him and Karliah to walk over to one of the more private areas of the Cistern, where he noticed that Tri Ki was keeping an eye on the other thieves, allowing him to focus on the dark elf as she leaned against one of the walls.

"I'll be brief: Mercer stole something precious from the Twilight Sepulcher, and I was hoping to recover it from him or his corpse... but it wasn't there." Karliah stated, causing Capper to wonder if she was referring to the Skeleton Key, since he had stolen it from Mercer once upon a time and had used it to, before she focused on him again, like she though he had what she was looking for, which could be the truth, "Did you discover anything unique inside Mercer's house, or on his person before you used my arrow on him? And I don't mean a statue or weapon, I mean a key."

"Sadly, I cannot help you there... but I know who can." Capper replied, where he withdrew Mercer's golden soul gem and let his ring glow for a moment, causing Karliah to watch as the soul gem was consumed by magic for a few seconds, before a new kobold took shape, a male with dark gray scales and black clothing that reflected the black clothing the former Guild Master had been wearing, as it was black leather armor, "Welcome back, Mercer. You'll be remaining here, in the Cistern, to answer all of Karliah's questions truthfully... Karliah, please refrain from hurting him too much or killing him. Do that and you can ask him anything you want. I have other business to attend to."

His business was speaking to Delvin and Vex about the jobs they wanted done, though he surprised them by taking far more than two jobs, as that limitation was foolish and stupid, rather he took a list of jobs from both thieves, giving him enough to where he was sure all four cities would be contacting Delvin in the near future. He had jobs to change the numbers inside a number of businesses, jobs to steal items from the pockets of his targets, jobs to steal a specific amount of wealth in random items, jobs to invade homes to take items, to place stolen items, take a specific item, and take items from a store. He had a few pouches on him that contained the various items he needed to place, pouches to hold the stolen items, and notes that were on each one so he knew the jobs that were required of him, which put a smile on his face as he and Tri Ki headed out of the Cistern, La'nari staying behind to keep Mercer alive. He did feel a little sorry for the new kobold, it was out of the frying pan and into the fire with him, but he suspected that this wouldn't be the end of him and that he might get some more use out of him in the future, something Capper would think about in the future.

He had jobs in each major city, which included Riften, and that caused him to wonder where he should start first, before he regrouped with Rarity, Midnight, Azure and Sharva, as it was just them and Tri Ki, and he could see that they were eager to hear what sort of plans he had in mind this time around.

"We're going to head to Whiterun first, so Azure can regroup with the Companions and get another task... while you guys do that I'm going to complete my own missions, and get a few unique items." Capper stated, as three of Barenziah's stones just so happened to be in Whiterun, so he figured that he could grab those three while they were there, which was why he was going to have Tri Ki get the one that was inside the Companion's hall since Azure wouldn't steal it, "After that we'll deal with Markarth, zero in on Solitude, clean up Windhelm, and then come back to deal with Riften's jobs before turning them in at the same time... I imagine that when Azure is done with his next mission, and Rarity has collected the books for the College, Brynolf and the others will be ready to confirm that my jobs have been fully completed. I suspect I'll have some special jobs to do once that happens, but it shouldn't be too much for me to handle... then we can focus on what comes next."

"And... and what about me?" Sharva asked, because she noticed that most of the work they would be doing was centered around the group that had formed before she came into contact with them, which meant there was nothing for her to do during their visits to the other Holds, since her experience was in fighting, "Is there anything I can do to help you guys?"

"Darling, it's not about what we want... it's about what you want. What do you want to do?" Rarity replied, as she and the rest of the group knew that the ashen khajiit had been so focused on hunting Xylia down and taking her life, a hunt that was now over, meaning she had to do something with her life and find something new to focus on, and if Sharva really was the hero of Skyrim, the Dragonborn, it might involve fighting some dragons.

"I... I need to speak with my master, before I do anything else... do you know where we can find one of Dagon's shrines?" Sharva asked, causing Capper to raise an eyebrow as the others glanced at each other, as none of them were expecting her to be a follower of the Prince of Destruction and Change, and yet to Capper it sort of made sense, because such a hero was one who changed the flow of history, according to what Ithelia and Mora had told him, so her tale made sense to him.

"Well, we can either ask Mora, or maybe check out the museum that opened in Dawnstar... the 'Museum of the Mythic Dawn' as this notice says." Midnight commented, holding out the pamphlet she had been given by a courier while they were waiting for Capper to complete his various objectives, which indicated that there was such a place in the small port town that they had passed by on their journey to Winterhold for the first time, "I'm sure either of them would know where we might find one of the shrines."

Sharva considered her choices for a moment before deciding that they could check in with the museum, to which Capper added it to the list of things to do and figured that they could do two of the cities before jumping over to Dawnstar to check the museum, which only confused the ashen khajiit. She soon discovered what Capper meant as they used the Riften Portal to return to the Opulent Lands for a moment and then used the Whiterun Portal to appear in the outskirts of the city, which only confused her even more as she realized that there was more to the group than she originally knew. Capper decided to let Rarity and Midnight talk with her for a short period of time, as he, Azure, and Tri Ki had work to do before they left for the next Hold that was on his list, where he pulled out the short list of jobs that needed to be done in Whiterun as Azure made his way towards Jorrvaskr. Tuk Ur came with them as well, since technically he was part of Azure's team and had also been acknowledged by the Companions, though his focus was on seeing what their next job was before they proved themselves to the members of the Circle.

Tri Ki's role in all of this was simple, she was going to take the map that held the locations of Barenziah's stones and steal the stones that were in the cities they would be visiting, while he tracked down each of the targets he had to steal from, so while she headed off to track down the three stones that were in Whiterun he focused on his own tasks. With that in mind he went out into the rest of the city, where he looked at the portion of the list for this city and noted that he had to steal something from the general shop, three things from the local guardian's house, a bunch of stuff from the city, the archer that rested in the first inn had an item he needed to take, and he had something to give Nazeem. The general shop and the house of the local guardian were easy to break into, especially since the shop keeper and his assistant were gone when he broke in, and he spotted the steel plate armor wearing lady heading into The Bannered Mare, so breaking into her place was easy as well, and his targets were a few golden items. His other targets, the archer and Nazeem, were also easy to target, one was in the middle of harassing people in the market and that made it far to easy for him to slip the item into his pocket, while the other was in the middle of a business transaction, so when no guards were watching he slipped the pendant out of the archer's pocket and went on his way.

He didn't have to worry about the theft of a certain amount of goods since stealing the golden items from the houses was more than enough, so by the time he returned to the area near the portal he found that Azure and Tuk Ur were waiting with the others, and Tri Ki produced the three gems that had been her targets.

"They want us to clear out a bandit camp, said there's a vampire inside it... figured Rarity could come with us, get a boost to her power." Azure stated, as he knew that Capper would want to know what the mission was and he held out the note that he had been given with the location of the camp in question, so they could plan out where to go next in the future, before he thought about something else, "Skjor looked like he wanted to give me another mission, or maybe there's a ceremony that they're thinking of throwing for us, so we have that to look forward to when we get back later on."

"Good to know. And you did well, Tri Ki." Capper said, patting the kobold on the head as she handed over the stones she had collected, though there were a lot more for them to collect and he knew that it would take some time for them to collect all twenty-four of them, which was just a challenge that he was looking forward to completing, "Come, let us move onto the next city."

Capper didn't have to worry much as they moved to Markarth and both he and Tri Ki repeated the process, while Sharva's group headed to Dawnstar, which happened to be the smartest move right now, so he focused on tracking down his targets and Tri Ki focused on the stones. Since he had found one of the stones in the Dwemer Museum earlier there was only one in the city for the kobold to steal, which she was able to do without being spotted, and he was able to track down his tasks in record time, allowing them to return to the Opulent Lands once more. Following that Solitude was their next target, where one of the stones was supposed to be hidden with the rest of the furniture that was supposed to be sold to a specific house, but since Mora given them where the holding area of the items were it was easy for Tri Ki to swipe it and the other one that was in the domain of the Imperial Legion. Once Capper was done they stepped into the portal and went through another to end up in Windhelm, which should have been the most difficult of the cities since the guards were racist pricks, but they just ignored the duo as both of them fulfilled their objectives, stealing their stuff and swiping the red gems.

Once the stones of Barenziah were in hand the pair caught up with the rest of the group, finding that they were walking out of the house that had been transformed into a museum, to which Capper nodded his head to them as everyone turned to leave Dawnstar, either for Riften or for wherever Dagon's shrine was located.

"We, um, have a problem: Silus knows where the shrine is located, but he wants us to obtain the fragments of Dagon's Razor before he tells me anything." Sharva stated, which was aggravating to her, as she was Dagon's chosen, he had invested so much time in preparing her to kill Molag's main follower, and the man inside the small museum just ignored her like she was just a normal person, to which she pulled out a journal, "These are the locations of the three fragments."

"One is in Morthal... shouldn't be hard to get, just slip in while he's at work... the other two are in the hands of bandits, one in an orc controlled camp and the other with the Forsworn." Capper commented, though part of this was amusing, as one of the pieces just so happened to be where his altered map indicated another stone was located at, meaning it was an area he would have to visit at some point, causing him to nod as he tucked away the journal, "Very well, then we'll help you acquire the fragments of the Razor next... one is where a Stone of Barenziah is located, and the other happens to be near where the vampire is located for Azure's mission, so we can clear two birds with one stone. Getting the third piece will be easy, so that one we can grab last."

Midnight found that the others weren't even surprised by Capper planning ahead, he was in his element, especially since it was hard to tell what he needed to do now that he was a Prince of Oblivion, but once that was done he beckoned for them to follow him once more. As such they returned to Riften and followed him down into the Cistern once more, which meant he was ready to turn in all of the jobs he had been given earlier, and sure enough some of the other members noticed their return and followed them out into the Flagon. It was plainly clear what was going on, Capper was the talk of the Guild, the new top dog, the only one who was able to actually do jobs and succeed, meaning he knew something that no one else in the Guild knew, and everyone was eager to see if he was successful for not. Even Brynjolf, Karliah, and the revived Mercer, the latter of whom everyone hated and he rushed to Capper's side the moment they returned, were eager to see the fruits of his labors, while both Delvin and Vex seemed surprised to see him again, so soon anyway.

"What's wrong? Can't handle the jobs we're giving you?" Delvin asked, because the only time someone came back to him or Vex after getting a job, or multiple depending on the person, was due to them either botching the job as soon as they got it or because it was too much for them to handle, and this meant Capper might not be the top dog he envisioned him to be after everything he had done so far.

Capper, however, opened his pack and the jaws of the pair dropped as he placed items on the table with the notes about the job they were linked to, allowing them to see that not only had he done the jobs they had given him, but he had completed all twenty of the main jobs, five for each of the other main cities, in record time.

"Actually, I've already completed the jobs in Whiterun, Markarth, Solitude, and Windhelm." Capper remarked, though at the same time he knew that the rest of the Guild was stunned by this discovery, even Mercer was standing there with his jaw dropped, just totally caught off guard by the one that everyone said would replace him in the future, "I'm just here to turn all of them in and collect my payments, before I head out to complete some other business with my companions."

As it turned out the pair in front of him had no idea how to explain how Capper had gotten to all four of the cities and got all of his jobs done in such a short period of time, especially since he was keeping his portals a secret, before they handed over the gold as some of the items were collected. Since he had done twenty jobs, five in each of the other cities, that meant five hundred gold per job, for a grand total of ten thousand gold in the form of several sacks, causing Capper to nod as he and his companions collected the bags, as he didn't want to reveal this trick either. With that done, and the Guild looking like all of them had to verify his claims, Capper returned to his friends and departed for the outskirts of the city, to return to their carriage, but once they were in the clear he collected the bags, causing them to disappear and land in his Vault, as he would sort everything later. While he did that he asked Mercer if he told Karliah what she needed to know, who shook his head and told him that the item she was looking for, the Skeleton Key, had gone missing, leading to his current predicament, though Capper kept his information a secret from the figure.

He suspected that there would come a time when the Skeleton Key would need to be returned to Nocturnal's temple, but for the time being Capper focused on what he could do with the artifact and how he and his friends were tackling the various challenges that the world threw at them, causing him to smile as he faced the new day with his companions.