Skyrim: Band of Thieves

Since it would take Aela some time to get back to Whiterun, and figure out how she wanted to use Azure and Tuk Ur to take down the Silver Hand, Capper and the pair of newly born werewolves returned to the others, allowing Rarity and the others to see how the pair had changed, while Mora appeared nearby.

"Someone has tapped into the Eye of Magnus. Not enough to do anything, but someone is interested in it." Mora said, to which the group glanced at each other for a few moments, because this meant they were heading back to Winterhold to see what was going on, and Capper wondered if now was the time to lay claim to it before it was misused.

"Then we should return to Winterhold." Capper replied, where he found that the others nodded without delay, because if Mora was coming out to personally tell them about someone potentially tampering with the Eye, and she was sure of it since Capper knew the Prince was used to be the right one among them all, then it was worth investigating.

With that in mind the group climbed into the carriage before departing for Winterhold, as this time Capper figured that it would be best if they just traveled like normal, because Mora's statement told him that they could spend some extra time on their journey this time around. If she had been more worried about the Eye being misused he would have had them head back to Windhelm to use the portal network, since that would have gotten them to the College with ease, but since she was calm, and indicated that danger wasn't upon them, this was his decision. It also gave Aela some time to get Skjor's body back to Whiterun so he could be buried in whatever manner the Circle wanted to bury him in, and give her time to figure out the area that the Silver Hand were hiding in so she could have Azure and Tuk Ur assault them. Such a thing also gave Capper time to think about the new golden soul gems he had acquired from the fort that the werewolves had overrun, where a new idea came to mind, that if Mora was focused on training a new class of kobold than so could he, utilizing the ranger types to raise hunters and even trackers.

Capper also found that the werewolves they saved from the Silver Hand headed out into the wilds, no doubt returning to their lives before they were taken, since it was clear that they weren't fully feral, which made him curious as to whether or not they would see them again.

While they traveled Capper put his idea into motion as he used some of the newer golden soul gems to give way to a brand new group of kobolds, who, as he discovered, were definitely archer types and some even knew how to track, which had to be due to the training that some of the Silver Hand went through. Sure, they had to get used to the fact that they were now serving a Daedric Prince with their second lives, but, much like everyone else, all of them seemed fine with this set up and started to adapt to their new forms. It wasn't long before he found that some were tracking the wild animals that were all around the road they were following, in fact La'nari kept track of them and pointed out some things for them, allowing them to grow as rangers and trackers, which was what Capper wanted. He suspected that in due time his realm would have every sort of class available, all accessible by kobolds no less, and it made him wonder what else he could do before reaching that point, hence why more ideas continued to swirl around in his head.

Fortunately it didn't look like they had to worry about running into any enemies, the road was clear and the sky didn't have any dragons for them to worry about, so it only took them an hour or two to reach Winterhold, where Rarity, Capper, and Mah Oh climbed off the carriage and entered the College without delay.

"Rarity, there you and Mah Oh are. I've been looking for you two." a voice said, which happened to be the mage that tried to test everyone when they first approached the College, who really did look like she had been busy looking for the pair, while at the same time Capper felt a new magical signature in the College, above the area the Eye was held in, "Ancano's been looking for you two."

"Really? We had better see what the Thalmor agent wants." Rarity replied, as none of them liked the elf in question, he was like most of his kind, though she kept an open mind when it came to the others that weren't part of the Thalmor, causing her and her kobold companion to sigh in annoyance.

"I'll be waiting near the Eye." Capper told the pair, where Rarity nodded before she and Mah Oh followed the mage back into the main structure, though he waited for a few moments before heading in as well, only to find that no one was standing in the area that the Eye was floating in, causing him to focus for a moment, "Ithelia, Mora, join me."

"So, this is the Eye of Magnus." Ithelia said, as she and Mora stepped out of Capper's shadow once more, where she had to admit that his personal portal was definitely one of the best she had seen, since it allowed them to manifest in this world and actually explore, even if most of their power was sealed away, "My Lord, what is your command?"

"We're taking the Eye, aren't we?" Mora inquired, because it was a good move in her eyes, leaving the Eye alone was a good way for someone to misuse it for real and do untold damage on the area that it was currently stored in, but taking it meant that it would be out of the hands of the mortal races.

"Yes, we are. And you, Mora, will explain that a new Daedric Prince took it." Capper stated, as he had been working on a way to start spreading the knowledge of 'Midas' to the rest of the world and it was like someone had thrown open the door for him, where he could see that both Ithelia and Mora were thinking over his plan in their minds, "Each Prince can influence the world in some manner, and they can also warp things or people to their respective Realms... one could easily say that a new Prince wanted the Eye and stole it, and there would be nothing the mages could do to counter it."

"One could assume you took the Eye to ransom it to another Prince, fitting the title of the 'Prince of Greed'." Ithelia said, even if she and Mora knew that their Lord had no such plans in mind, he just liked collecting certain things, despite most 'things' being gold and jewels, plus his golden soul gems, but it would help spread word of his existence to the rest of the people of the world.

Capper nodded and found that the pair agreed with him, to which they spread out and formed a triangle around the Eye, all while he made sure the coast was still clear, and once he was sure no one was around they gathered their power, warping the space around the artifact. Sure enough the Eye vanished into thin air, where he focused his mind and teleported it into his realm, though he made sure it was safely placed in the area that it would feel at place in, in a slot near the peak of his own castle, a fact that meant it could be seen from all over the Opulent Lands. He had considered placing it at the very top of his domain, for a few moments anyway, but he felt that this was better, though with the magic done he nodded and allowed both Ithelia and Mora to call off their magic. Ithelia bowed her head as she returned to the Opulent Lands, while Capper and Mora did their best to be surprised when the mages arrived, to see that the Eye had been stolen, and it wasn't long before such a thing happened.

Rarity and Mah Oh came down with the Thalmor agent, the Arch-Mage, and a mage that looked like he was part of another order, though the last one, in yellow robes, let a small smile appear on his face as the group approached Capper and Mora, who were acting like they had just discovered the missing Eye.

"What... What happened to the Eye?" the Arch-Mage asked, while at the same time Ancano looked concerned, like the Eye had been part of his plans and now he couldn't do anything he had planned, which was a good thing based on everything they had learned since recovering the item from Saarthal.

"I'm afraid that it was stolen by Midas, the Daedric Prince of Greed." Mora stated, something that caused the trio to stop for a moment as they glanced at the figure, since it was clear that they weren't sure what to make of her information, while at the same time Capper silently stood by Rarity and Mah Oh, so when it was time to go they could slip out, "He's a newcomer in the waters of Oblivion, having stayed away from this world for a long, long time... I don't know why he's suddenly turning his attention to this plane of existence, but there are traces of his energy in the area."

"Another Daedric Prince? Rubbish. You have no idea what you're talking about." Ancano remarked, though in the following moment the yellow robed mage grabbed onto his shoulder and pulled him back, while Mora glared at the elf like she was going to strange him or blast him into Oblivion itself.

"Careful, she might not look imposing, but that's Hermaeus Mora, the Prince of Knowledge... if he, or she, says that there's another Prince, well, we had best listen." the yellow robed mage said, which was interesting to Capper, meaning this had to be a Psijic Monk, the very mages that had warned Rarity about the Eye in the first place, and it meant that they were more knowledgeable than he initially assumed.

"I would also like to tell you that Ithelia, the Prince of Paths, and Jyggalag, the Prince of Order, are back as well, so now there are nineteen Princes." Mora added, as she figured that this was the best thing to do, she might as well lay all the cards on the table, and she could see that the mages were interested in what she had to say, causing her to slither away for a moment as she wondered what to do next, "I have information on both, if you want to learn... you know how to reach me, if you are interested in my knowledge."

Capper knew that Mora was referring to her Summoning Day, since there was no guarantee that she'd come by here again in the future, so that might be the only way to get in contact with her, not unless they found new information that stood over everything the Opulent Lands could offer her, causing Ancano to huff as he walked away.

"We... might have information to exchange. Might I interest you in a way to locate the Staff of Magnus?" Savos inquired, a fact that caused Capper and Rarity to glance at each other for a moment, as Mora had explained that the Staff was a counter to the Eye, another artifact that was used by Magnus in the past even though people thought it was a tall tale, "I know you are the Prince of Knowledge, but it was hidden in a way to make sure no one could find it... and I think I know how one can go about locating it."

"Is that so? Tell me, and I will decide what your information is worth." Mora replied, though while she knew where the Staff was, it wasn't as well hidden as Savos seemed to think it was, she was interested in seeing if there was more to the magic he was talking about, plus she knew Capper would want to recover the Staff so it didn't fall into the wrong hands.

They discovered that there was a group of mages from Cyrodiil that were interested in the ruins of Mzulft, claimed that the dwarven ruin either held the Staff or might have a clue as to where they could find it, even though Savos was of the opinion that they were looking for all sorts of magical artifacts, not just the Staff. Mora ended up giving the Arch-Mage some brand new information on Jyggalag, so he and the other mages would have something to work on, and told him that she would check his sources out before determining how much more knowledge the College would gain. With that in mind they left the College and returned to the carriage, where they regrouped with the others and departed for Whiterun this time around, as it was time to check on Aela and see if she had any information for Azure and Tuk Ur. It also gave Rarity some time to think about the fact that there was another artifact out there for her to lead Capper to so he could collect it, since leaving powerful artifacts laying around seemed like a bad idea, given Ancano's reaction towards the Eye completely vanishing.

While they traveled, however, Mora pointed out where Mzulft was on the map in case Capper wanted to go there, and right now he was thinking of such a thing since there was a lot of metal that could be salvaged from such a place, both dwarven and ordinary, not to mention whatever else might be in the ancient ruin.

It really didn't take them long to return to Whiterun, given that they and the armies had cleared out the bandits and some of the animals that had roamed the roads in the last week or two, though this time Capper and the others stayed outside, while Azure and Tuk Ur checked in with Aela. A few minutes later the duo emerged from the city, informing the group that there was a Silver Hand hideout not far from the city, in the Silent Moons Camp, which Aela wanted them to destroy since cutting off the head of snake, or one of them, would weaken the group as a whole. Since it was nearby Capper figured that they could head over there and deal with the group of Silver Hand that were over there, since they were a threat to the city as a whole, especially if they believed that every member of the Companions were werewolves. Such a thing should make Aela pleased so she could focus on other things and not focus too hard on the Silver Hand, since he knew that such a thing could only spiral out of control, but with that in mind they headed out into the wilds once more, following the map to the area that their targets were in.

Capper found that it was just an ordinary ruin from the outside, with an area that seemed to have a forge due to the ringing they were hearing, plus there was a collapsed wall that seemed to have a way into an underground area, though there were ten bandit looking members of the Silver Hand outside the ruin, patrolling the area.

Azure and Tuk Ur rushed at the ruins before their enemies even knew what was happening, both cutting them down while also avoiding arrows that were coming at them, as it looked like the ranged members of the group had noticed them coming, but a tad bit too late in Capper's eyes. The interesting thing was that when he looked at these supposed members of the Silver Hand he didn't see werewolf hunters, rather he saw bandits who were being exterminated because Aela was angry over Skjor's death, but he couldn't blame her for such a thing. As the others slew the bandits, however, any thoughts Capper had on them being part of the group that hunted werewolves were made irrelevant as he discovered that each had one of the silver swords, some had necklaces to help avoid disease, there was a forge dedicated to lunar forging, and he located a missive detailing the Silver Hand's movements. Other than that he located a bunch of ore and supplies that likely went into the operations of those that were hunting the Companions, though Azure wasn't even surprised to see the kobolds come out and start hauling away anything of value, he was used to it at this point, even though they were now hauling off chests as well.

"With all of the citizens I've been gathering, we need storage for everyone, hence the chests... we'll have to enchant them, so they only open up for the one they're bonded to, now that I consider it." Capper commented, nodding to the kobolds as they did their work, especially since two were hauling around one of the larger chests that held greater loot, causing him to think about it for a few more seconds, "I can make the larger ones into storage units for the various shops in the city, also tied to each owner so nothing won't be stolen... though with how big the city is we're going to need far more than this. Oh well, I'll just be sure to grab every chest we pass by in the future."

Rarity wasn't even surprised by this, as Capper was purely focused on making the Opulent Lands the richest place and even give his citizens everything they could wish for in their second lives, even though they did have to work for it, but from what she had seen the reborn were quite happy with this odd arrangement. Even Ithelia and Mora, Daedric Princes in their own rights, were fine with this set up, even if it meant serving a Prince that was actually younger than them, but far stronger than they were since his power allowed him to do all sorts of odd and strange things. That brought up something she dreaded, as multiple Princes knew of Capper's existence as Midas, some were even aware of the fact that he could walk the mortal plane like it was nothing, so she knew it was only a matter of time until Nocturnal, Mehrunes Dagon, Jyggalag, or even Sheogorath came looking to abuse their abilities. That wasn't counting all of the other Princes as well, there were a lot that could seek to do harm if they decided to do something about Capper and his powers, causing her to wonder if he had a plan to deal with all of them or hold them back in some manner, before deciding that she could worry about it later.

With that in mind they made sure all of the loot had been claimed before returning to Whiterun so Azure and Tuk Ur could deliver word of their success to Aela, along with the missive Capper found, and once that was done they utilized the gate in the city to move to Windhelm so they could head down the path to Riften. Along the way Capper recalled finding a fragment of an unknown crystal in the storehouse, where he pulled out a map and smiled as he looked at it, as Mora had updated it to hold the known locations of the other three shards that went to it. One of them was in another ruin near Windhelm, one was southeast of Markarth, and another was somewhere to the northeast of Markarth, halfway between it and Solitude based on Mora's notes, and he already had plans to recover all three of them in due time. Mora was even kind enough to inform him that they were aetherium shards, a powerful crystalline ore that the Dwarves processed into relics of immense power, which explained why Capper had been so drawn to it and why his ring was so powerful, before he became a Prince.

It also made him wonder what he could do with the full Aetherium Crest, all four pieces linked together at long last, if one had allowed him to make his ring, causing him to smile as they continued down the road as he imagined what to do with the piece of aetherium he already had.

When they arrived at Mzulft, however, Capper found that everyone wanted to head inside, not just Rarity and Man Oh, due to the fact that it would take hours for them to get out and those left to guard the carriage didn't want to be bored, so they entered the ruin as well, after Capper returned the carriage to the Opulent Lands. There was a dying mage on the inside of the entrance, who mentioned that one of his fellows was alive deeper in, in the Oculory, before he died, allowing Capper to take the golden soul gem he produced as Rarity unlocked the door with the mage's key. Capper nodded to the area that was behind him and Rarity found that the kobolds were coming out in force, he wanted to collect every bit of metal that was in this place, not to mention treasure and other oddities, before allowing her and Mah Oh to start moving forward. No one was even remotely surprised when they discovered some metal spiders to deal with, where the magic users did what they did best as Rarity froze them with her frost magic, her specialty as the others were discovering. That was the amazing thing in Capper's eyes, the dwarven machines were supposed to be immune to frost, Mora's words, and yet here Rarity was, simply freezing them while Mah Oh hurled bolts of lightning at her opponents, allowing them to open a path for them.

As such Capper let them lead the way through the ruin, though there were instances for Azure, Midnight, and the others to shine along the way, as they found some of the blind and hideous Falmer lingering about the place, often joined by spiders, before they came face to face with the chaurus, horrible insects that looked like they came straight out of a nightmare. In fact he was sure that they could be referred to as 'horrible insects of doom' and literally everyone would know who one was talking about, though Midnight and La'nari dealt with those foul creatures with their bows. Such a thing meant that Azure and Tuk Ur were left with the Falmer themselves, which they did with gusto as they slashed their way through them, leaving Capper to do nothing but collect the loot and store it away, something he didn't need to do with his collector kobolds hard at work. Fortunately with how many kobolds there were he made sure to divide them into teams so those in the Opulent Lands could rest and then replace a group when it was time for a working group to rest, an effective system in his mind, plus there was a sorter division to divide up their haul and place them into the right areas of his realm.

The best thing about the ruin, and the fact that they were tackling it together, was that Capper was going to walk out of here with another hoard of golden soul gems, meaning soon the Opulent Lands would have more citizens and creatures to call it home, and would likely draw even more attention to his domain.

Of course he was also pitching in on everything that was going on, as some of the enemies rushed by the others and came at him, figuring that he had to be the weakest one of them all, but that was a fatal mistake on their part as he pulled out both of his golden blades. The following slashes allowed everyone else to observe as their enemies dissolved into piles of gold and gems, with their golden soul gems in the center of the piles, allowing the kobolds to collect the loot he left behind, though as he did that Capper glanced at the blades. He observed them in greater detail once more, and their combined greatsword form he could use if he merged them into a single mass again, causing him to think about something while they delved even deeper into the ancient dwarven ruin. That something was the fact that he hadn't given his weapon a name, like the rest of all the other weapon artifacts he had seen and heard about so far, something that caused him to smile for a moment as the perfect name came to mind.

"I know what to call my weapon artifact: Avarice, Blade of the Plunderlord." Capper remarked, where he could see that the rest of the group looked at him for a moment, knowing that 'blade' meant the greatsword and that the twin blades likely meant they would be referred to as 'blades', giving him three artifacts now, in addition to his ring and the Storian quill.

"And a new title that definitely fits: Midas, Daedric Prince of Greed, Lord of New Beginnings, the Plunderlord... you're really starting to fit in with the other Princes." Rarity replied, which was the truth, Capper had found his calling rather easily when they started traveling around Skyrim, it was like being a Daedric Prince was just another suit or skin for him to wear, and she had a feeling he'd obtain a few more titles in no time, since each of the powerful beings had a mass of titles.

Capper found that the others were approving of the artifact's name and his new title, though after that they continued even deeper into the ruin and found that there were more Falmer to deal with, one even had an odd magical crystal that caused him to call on Mora for a moment. She informed him that it was a focusing crystal, which likely went to the main core of this ruin, the very place that Savos had sent them to gain information on the Staff of Magnus, and it wasn't long before the group found a locked door, one they were able to unlock thanks to Capper having the Skeleton Key. The mage on the other side was shocked by their arrival and immediately tried to fight them, likely thinking they were robbers or something, but as soon as he cast his ice spell Capper slashed him apart, creating a pile of gold and gems for the kobolds to collect. From there they found a large dwarven orb that seemed important, it was a device that Mora told them was designed to collect starlight and make a map of Tamriel, so by slipping the focusing crystal into the device Rarity was able to use her frost to alter it a little to rearrange the beams.

After pressing a trio of buttons on the terminals above them the group found that Mora was right, the device created a map of the continent that had a number of glowing lights on it, revealing the locations of relics of incredible power, where Capper noted that one was in Labyrinthian, but smiled as they copied this information, as it gave him ideas for the future once they were done with the guilds and made him wonder what the future held for them.