Skyrim: Band of Thieves

After leaving the Flagon, which would allow the Guild to confirm Capper's completed jobs, he and his friends gathered in the area of Riften that he had set the portal in, allowing them to transfer to the Opulent Lands for a few moments before he brought them to Whiterun.

"Wait, what did we just do?" Mercer asked, because while the new kobold was getting used to his new body, and the fact that he was smaller than before, he had noticed the sudden shift in magic and the odd world they had briefly been in before he and the others were brought to Whiterun, which he was struggling to wrap his head around.

"We walked though a few portals to move to a new area... don't worry, you'll get used to it." Tri Ki replied, as she and the rest of the kobolds were used to the newfound portals, just like how her Prince's friends were now used to it as well, though as she said that they headed outside the city, where the carriage was waiting for them near the edge of the city.

Capper nodded as they reached the carriage and La'nari set them on a course to reach Falkreath, since that was the first stop the group needed to make before he even considered returning to Riften to see if Delvin had any special jobs for him to do, so he could expand the Guild's power to it's formerly glory. He wanted to set up a portal in the southwestern Hold, as he wanted one in each main city, even if some of the cities in question were small and might not be worthwhile to the rest of the Guild, just so he and the others could easily move through the Holds without slowing down. Falkreath was the last one of the Holds of Skyrim he needed to set a portal up in, as he already had Riften since the beginning, then he got the rest of the main cities thanks to the path they took while doing the rest of Mercer's missions, and all of the lesser cities mostly came from following the northern coast. Once he had this portal set up all nine of them would be in place and he could focus on other things, both in his realm and in the mortal plane, but until then he had plans to complete, items to acquire, and riches to acquire, and soul gems if he found any.

What they discovered were more Legionnaires wandering around the roads, a few wild animals on the hunt or attacking the odd traveler that was in their territory, and the same old scenes Capper and his friends had encountered since arriving in this world, to the point that none of them were overly worried. Mercer, of course, was surprised by all of the discoveries he was making as he traveled with the group, not that he had much of a choice in the matter, and he found that when a group of bandits approached the carriage there wasn't much he or the other kobolds had to do. This was due to La'nari and the one called Midnight dealt with some with their arrows and daggers, Rarity froze her enemies so she could drain their blood before burning their bodies, while Azure and Sharva carved through their few foes with their weapons. Capper seemed to be the only one who wasn't interested in fighting, and yet when he was drawn into combat Mercer understood why he was such a dangerous figure, he wielded his golden blades like they were instruments of death, yet leaving piles of gold, gems, and the odd golden soul gem when he cut someone down.

In the end Mercer figured out one thing, he was in the presence of a Daedric Prince that was breaking all the rules, since he wasn't supposed to be in the mortal plane, and with that in mind he joined the collector kobolds that appeared out of thin air in collecting the treasure, which he learned was warped to the Opulent Lands.

Eventually Capper found that they reached the small town of Falkreath, where one of the guards asked them if any of them had seen a dog on their travels, as the local blacksmith had said he was looking for one and could have sworn he had seen one right outside the town. Placing a portal in this place seemed to be somewhat harder than Capper was thinking, but then the idea came to him as he went behind the general trader, where none of the guards could see him, to which he smiled for a moment as he etched the portal into part of the wall and one of the kobolds emerged to confirm that it worked. With that done Capper confirmed that he had a way into all nine Holds, meaning the denizens of his plane could travel between the Holds with ease, and now so could he and his friends, which would be useful in the future, of that he was sure. Mercer just watched all of this as it happened, not sure what to make of the situation that he had found himself in, but ultimately came to the decision that this was far better than serving Nocturnal in his afterlife, since that was sure to be pain and misery if she got her hands on him.

Capper smiled as he wrapped up his visit to Falkreath, because there would be time to come back later and see if there were items to claim, gold to steal, and the usual items that he was keeping an eye out for, though as the carriage left the town, so they could track down the first piece of the razor, Capper spotted something right outside the town.

"Well I'll be, looks like we've got another Prince to meet... never thought being a Prince would make me this busy." Capper said, where Rarity and the others noticed that he was looking at the road that was heading in the direction of the first piece of the razor, which happened to be where a normal looking dog was sitting, barking to get the attention of anyone who might be willing to help it out, or maybe it was looking for someone very specific, "Hello there, my fellow Prince. What brings you to this part of Skyrim?"

"Well, you're half right: my name is Barbas, and I'm a third of the Daedric Prince Clavicus Vile." the dog replied, speaking with it's mind and not the barks that they were hearing right now, which wasn't much of a surprise to Capper, not after each of the odd things he and his friends had seen so far, though the dog, Barbas, walked over to the carriage and looked over him for a few seconds, before nodding and allowed himself to be picked up by Capper so he could sit with him and La'nari while they continued to move, "You see, my master and I had a bit of a falling out, and he's kicked me out until I can find someone to settle things between us... normally I'd track down a mortal champion, as is custom among Princes, but something tells me things will be more interesting if I convince you to talk with him. Who are you anyway?"

"I am Midas, Daedric Prince of Greed and Lord of New Beginnings. I go by 'Capper' while in my mortal form." Capper stated, though he had to admit that this was interesting, meeting a figure that contained a significant portion of a Prince's power, as it was different from everything else he and the others had seen so far, while Barbas looked over him for a moment, where he suspected that the dog was seeing his Princely side despite showing him his mortal form, "Vile might be willing to listen since I'm another Prince, a relatively new one at that, but we have some business to attend to in a few of the nearby bandit forts and in one of the smaller Holds. Maybe I'll swing by his shrine once we're done with our tasks."

Barbas seemed fine with that information and told Capper that the shrine to Clavicus Vile was in a place called Haemar's Shame, a cave near Helgen that happened to be home to a clan of vampires who worshiped the Prince, causing Rarity to lick her lips for a moment, as it sounded like a good day for her. Capper also learned that most didn't know that Vile's power was split into three fragments, rather most assumed that it was just him and Barbas, but there was a third, the sword that went by the name 'Umbra', something that he kept in mind for later. The dog also came into contact with the kobolds, who smiled as he stared at them before asking Capper about the new beings, since he was sure they weren't supposed to be wandering around this plane without a summoner, something that caused Capper to tell him that it was his secret. Of course he knew it was only a matter of time until Barbas learned about the portals and took that information to Vile, but Capper just smiled, as he could still utilize that to his advantage at some point, he just had to be patient.

After that they found the fort that happened to be their destination, where they found a small group of orc hunters tending to the outside of it, but instead of warning them off, or asking what the group was doing here, two of them loosed arrows at them and forced Rarity to use her magic to stop the projectiles before they hit anyone. Since the four orcs were hostile the group drew their weapons and attacked them, where Capper noticed that the new soul gems that were dropped were more ashy in color, likely Malacath's since his realm was supposedly one of ash. Such a thing made him pocket the gems for now, as he might be able to trade them to the Prince of Outcasts in the future, though that didn't stop the kobolds from gathering the weapons, armor, and food that the slain had been carrying on them. With that done Sharva entered the fort and they found a few more orcs inside it, all looking like hunters and all attacking the group without asking a single question, which was why she and the others dealt with them in no time at all, only to discover that the chief was ready for them. It was easy to tell him apart from the rest of his clan, given that he was wearing the best armor and the best weapon, orcish to be exact, though the group let Sharva deal with him since this was her quest, or at least she wanted to claim the razor's pieces with her own strength.

Sharva used her natural speed and reflexes to avoid the incoming attacks, allowing her to slip her blades through the orc's defenses and wound his chest repeatedly, eventually stabbing both into his heart, tearing his battleaxe from his hands, and then took his head with his own weapon.

"There, the first piece should be ours soon enough." Sharva commented, where she looted the orc's body and discovered a key that likely went to where the razor's blade fragments were located, while at the same time Capper looted the big chest of everything that was inside it, allowing the ashen khajiit to remove her blades and continue exploring.

She found a door that lead to the second entrance of the fort, which also had a sealed path with spike poles blocking the way forward, though the key went to the nearby container on the wall to their right, something that turned out to be the hiding place of the mechanism that unlocked the path. Such a thing lead them into what appeared to be the abandoned portion of the fort, since it didn't look like anyone had been here for some time, and there were a few more locked paths leading into a pair of small rooms, which he let the kobolds loot. A few levers blocked the main path forward and Sharva pulled them, only to break a few tripwires with her blades, allowing darts to fire into the walls while she avoided them, before she approached a pedestal that held the blade shards of a very special blade. She looked at them for a moment before stuffing them inside a pouch, while also stepping to the side to avoid some more darts, a last attempt to stop someone from stealing the shards, but once that was done she returned to them with part of the artifact recovered.

With that done the group returned to the carriage and La'nari carefully moved them through the portion of the forest that they were in, as Azure and Tuk Ur's objective was close to where the orc fort was located, and it wasn't hard to see it due to the lone watchtower in the distance. This time around the pair of warriors went in on their own, save for Capper following with a few collector kobolds to collect the items and gold that the bandits had, where he found that Azure ducked to avoid the incoming attacks while cutting down his foes, while Tuk Ur used his short stature to avoid attacks and cut his foes down with ease. Capper found that there wasn't much to worry about here, the bandits were slow and didn't really react to what was going on, something that forced Azure to stop until he was sure that some of them were attacking him since he really didn't want to dishonor anyone, especially himself. Even the treasure inside the short mine cave was lacking, which had to be due to the chief wearing what appeared to be a few pieces of ebony armor, the gauntlets and boots to be exact, and when he was brought down Azure allowed Capper to take the pieces from the slain bandit, as he didn't need them.

Once the bandits were taken care of, and the kobolds confirmed that the camp was clear while Capper added more golden soul gems to his collection, they returned to the road and started to make their way to Markarth, or at least an area that was near it according to the notes Sharva had been given.

"Honestly, I've never seen anything like that before. Just turning slain enemies into a new type of soul gem." Barbas said, as the more he observed the more he had to wonder what was going on, since Capper was a Prince that seemed to break the rules, as if he wasn't aware of them and was learning as he went, and yet he seemed perfectly content with how things were going, especially as Capper stored the golden soul gems away, "What do you do with them?"

"Depends. If an animal's soul is in one, an opulent version of them will form in my realm when I use it... if a person's soul is in the gem I'll make a kobold, like Tri Ki." Capper replied, though at the same time he had to wonder if that was true anymore, as both Ithelia and Mora had taken on unique forms during their transformations, even if one was intentional and the other wasn't, and it made him wonder about the potential forms his kobolds could eventually take, and the other creatures that might be waiting for him to create them, "Though given how each Prince has multiple types of denizens in their realm, such as how Sheogorath has the Saints and Seducers, that could very well change in the near future... I'm actually considering the potential for creating a few other types of denizens, but I haven't fully committed to anything new yet."

Barbas nodded his head a little as he focused on the road that was in front of him, because the more he learned about the newest Prince the more interested he knew Vile would be, as it wasn't every day that a new Prince claimed a vast space of Oblivion to make their realm in, as the Opulent Lands seemed quite large. Of course he was still trying to figure out how Capper, as he was respectful enough to use the Prince's mortal name while in the Mortal Plane, had managed to manifest in this plane in the first place, since he seemed to be present in every sense of the word. It wasn't like how Mora would appear as floating masses, or how some might appear as faint masses of energy, or how Peryite would appear as mice during the hallucinations his followers underwent, rather it was like the Prince of Greed was fully here, yet his power didn't feel like the power of a Prince. In that moment Barbas had to wonder if Midas had figured out a way to slip through the Liminal Barrier, the barrier between Nirn and Oblivion, without actually manifesting his full power in this plane, like what Dagon had done during the Oblivion Crisis, which caused the dog to remain silent as they traveled across Skyrim.

It gave Barbas a front row seat to the group's abilities, as it seemed like they had the power to take down the Forsworn and the bandits that were in the region that was under Markarth's control, as there were warriors capable of cutting down their enemies, archers to weaken their foes, a mage who was getting better at hitting her targets, the Prince's kobolds that just collected everything, and the Prince himself.

When they tracked down the location of the Forsworn camp that was their second destination, which involved passing by an orc stronghold and promising the orcs that they were used passing through, Capper and the others launched a full scale assault on the Forsworn that were outside the structure. The reason Barbas called it that was due to the fact that everyone in the carriage got out and engaged their enemies, arrows piercing the Forsworn as a few lightning bolts pushed them back, opening the way for the melee fighters to reach the front lines. He also watched Capper for a time, finding that his blades were definitely on par with some of the daedric artifacts that some of the other Princes had created over the eras, and yet he suspected that there was more to them than what he was seeing. In fact Barbas was sure the new Prince had a second relic in his possession, the strange ring he wore, which only made him wonder how much power Capper actually had since he was fairly new in the grand scheme of things, but decided not to question it.

The kobolds went into the ruin and tracked down the stragglers, who came rushing out to join the battle and perished when they encountered the group, and not even the hagraven at the very peak of the structure, their target, lasted very long as Sharva dodged her magic and severed her head. Such a thing allowed the kobolds to gather around the ruins and locate the rest of the treasure that was held in this place, amazing Barbas with how effective they were in tracking down riches, though their true prize, the pommel stone, Sharva claimed from the slain hagraven. She also approached the Word Wall and stared at it for a couple of seconds, like she was learning something, while Capper picked up his target item, the next red stone that he added to his collection, and once the ashen khajiit was done everyone returned to the carriage. Everyone was pleased by their actions, as it meant that they were one step closer to completing their goals, and La'nari got them underway again, this time altering their course so she could get them to Morthal, the location of the last razor piece.

Of course night fell while they traveled, though Capper had them pull aside and everyone relaxed in the inside of the magical carriage, allowing them to eat some food, talk about their plans, and get some rest, while he made sure Barbas knew that he'd check on Vile once they were done with the razor.

Once morning was upon them it was the same as before, they traveled along the road, those inside the carriage talking and just enjoying the time they had to relax, such as Rarity talking with Sharva about tending to her fur and actually taking care of her body, something she would need to work on in the future. There were travelers on the road, as they expected, yet this time around they didn't have to stop for any troublemakers, La'nari was able to safely navigate the path without anyone else getting in their way, which was a nice change of pace in the grand scheme of things. Reaching Morthal was easy, and they went to the outskirts where the lumber mill rested, as that was where the notes said that the owner of the last fragment was supposed to live, and sure enough he and his wife were getting ready to start their days. Capper and Sharva approached the pair, mentioning the fragment and that it would be best if they took it from them, since there was no telling who might come looking for it, and it was the wife who handed over the keys without delay, allowing them to head into the small house so Capper could unlock the chest.

It was easy for Sharva to claim the final piece of the razor, and with it in hand the pair departed from the house, thanking the couple for their understanding, before returning to the carriage so they could depart, this time heading back to Dawnstar so they could hand the pieces over to the museum guy and be on their way.

Capper was amazed by how good their progress was today, as there didn't seem to be any bandits in this portion of Skyrim, and the fights between the Imperials and the Stormcloaks seemed to be over, meaning there wasn't much for them to do as they traveled towards the port town. Sure, there were a few wild animals here and there, but for the most part they steered clear of the carriage, as if they understood that it wasn't something for them to attack, meaning there wasn't much for the group to worry about. Getting to Dawnstar proved to be rather easy and once the carriage had reached it's destination Capper let La'nari turn the carriage around as Sharva took the razor fragments over to the house that doubled as a museum, as it was time to end this particular quest and get back to everything else Capper was focused on. As it turned out Sharva and the museum owner left the house not a few minutes later, the man first and the ashen khajiit a few moments later, and the group raised their eyebrows for a moment as the man rushed by them, like a Prince was chasing him.

"Follow him... he's going to ask Dagon to repair the Razor." Sharva stated, where she was addressing the artifact with more respect than she and the others had been doing before this point, though at the same time she turned towards Capper for a moment and withdrew four special looking tomes, which she handed to him, "Here, Mora will want to have these in her vast collection."

"Are those the Commentaries on the Mysterium Xerxes?!" a voice said, where Mora appeared in the back of the carriage, as in she was speaking through the window that the others used to check what was happening outside the vessel, before the transformed prince grabbed all four tomes and brought them into the Opulent Lands, "They're in pristine condition too... good, it would have been a shame if we lost this knowledge as well."

Capper chuckled a little at that, as Mora was like a kid in a candy shop when it came to gathering knowledge, but he let her be as La'nari followed the man from a distance, because if he actually reformed the Razor there was no way he was leaving a full daedric artifact in such an unprotected area. The damage one could do with one was hard to forget, if what they saw in Solitude's sewers was anything to go by, so he figured that collecting the artifacts might prevent the other Princes from this sort of thing, and he found that the others agreed with him. The man took a rather strange path through the mountain that was to the southwest of Dawnstar, where Capper realized that he was leading them straight to Dagon's shrine, which was a massive stone statue that was chiseled in a way that made it look like the Prince was sitting on the mountain's peak. This was what they were ultimately looking for, as the man could reforge the Razor and Sharva could speak with her master at long last, and after a point La'nari and most of the group stayed back, not wanting to go through the mountain area, so Capper, Tri Ki, Sharva, and a few kobolds went to go see what the end result was.

As it turned out Dagon didn't want to speak with the man, but the moment Sharva approached the altar Capper could feel the resonance in the air, the Prince of Change was speaking to her, a private conversation, though it seemed to freak the man out as he tried to attack Sharva, who cut him down without delay.

You there, come forward. Dagon stated, where Capper walked up the rest of the stairs and glanced at the statue that was above them, though he could tell that the Prince of Change was staring at him in turn, like they were sizing each other up despite one not being in this realm, Ah, there is another Prince on the board... the games you'll play with be amusing to witness. I am Mehrunes Dagon, Daedric Prince of Destruction and Lord of Change.

"Likewise I am Midas, Daedric Prince of Greed and Lord of New Beginnings." Capper replied, because it sounded like Dagon was addressing him as an equal, or at least he wanted a chance to speak with the newest Prince before he left to go do the rest of his deeds, all while he noticed that the man's soul created a golden soul gem with a crimson sheen to it, and that the Razor was in one piece again.

Go. You have my blessing to count Sharva among your Court. Use her and the Razor to spread our influences. Dagon said, which was rather surprising to Capper, as he expected the Prince of Destruction to want something else, and he even noted that there was now a black key near the Razor, but he guessed that the Prince wanted to use his ability to spread both of their names to the people of the world.

As Dagon's voice disappeared, and Sharva realized that she was free to find her own fate, Capper had the kobolds use the key on the door below the shrine as he collected the Razor, feeling the power pulsing inside the weapon, and smiled a little as he wondered what the coming days might have in store for them.