Skyrim: Band of Thieves

With their work in Mzulft complete, and Capper's map was littered with locations containing powerful artifacts, the group departed from the ruin and found a side passage that brought them outside, meaning they could climb down to where they had stopped previously before summoning their carriage once more.

"So, the Staff of Magnus is in Labyrinthian, there are a number of Daedric Artifacts scattered around Skyrim, and it looks like there are a bunch of other targets... and that's just in Skyrim." Capper said, a smile on his face as everyone took their places on the carriage, because this allowed him to plan ahead for when they were done with the various guilds, and right now he was sure they were nearing the end of the Companions and the College, in terms of major events, "Well, we should return to Winterhold and meet with Savos, to uphold our end of the deal, but after that we can do whatever you guys want to do."

"In that case, can we stop by Windhelm? I would like to speak with that Aretino boy." Midnight inquired, because they had learned about him potentially summoning the Dark Brotherhood in the past and she wanted to see if there was any truth to that, even though she was still debating what to do about the assassins guild, despite the fact that they seemed to fit her, like how the other three guilds fit her friends.

Capper felt that such a thing was fair and it was on their way to Winterhold, so La'nari took control of the carriage and got them on the road once more, heading towards the city that Ulfric ruled over with an iron fist, where most of them relaxed as Mora rested in the back. She was going over Capper's map and was going over the various locations that had been revealed to them inside Mzulft, creating a list of locations and the items that they should have, allowing him to understand what sort of treasures he could claim if he visited them. Once more the group didn't have to worry about the dangers of the road, due to having traveled the road many times in the past and the armies traveling up and down this path, which everyone was fine with since they could conserve their energy for a time. Other than that Capper slipped into his realm for a moment and found that all of the kobolds, those that were in the sorting area of the city, were hard at work arranging everything, but at the same time made sure they were taking breaks.

He did find that his desires were being brought to life, as there were some kobolds who were becoming merchants, some were involved in the brewery on the edge of the city, others focused on being hunters, guards, and whatever else the city was in need of, and there was even a quarry on the edge of the city, full of miners.

"Looks like everything is moving along smoothly." Capper commented, finding Ithelia standing near the collectors, where he suspected that she was the one to thank for helping everyone awaken new skills in their new lives, before he glanced around for a moment and kept the smile on his face, as there were new warriors, mages, and even thieves being trained, meaning his domain really had everything to offer.

"Yes, though you had best prepare for Nocturnal's eventual arrival. She'll no doubt come for Mercer." Ithelia said, because while she knew that her Lord understood that fact, in fact she was sure that he was planning on her showing up and likely had something in mind for her, she also knew reminding him of that fact every now and then couldn't hurt, especially since his focus was so divided between everything he was doing right now.

"I know, and I have some ideas for when she arrives." Capper replied, where he found that Mercer was, in fact, focusing on training the thief kobolds on how to be thieves, which was good to see since it meant he was making the most of his time in this realm, as if he knew it was only a matter of time until Nocturnal came for him, "For now, proceed like normal."

Ithelia nodded as Capper took one last look at the rest of the Opulent Lands before returning to the others, allowing him to focus on getting to Windhelm, which didn't take too long to do, though this time most of them stayed outside the city while Midnight headed inside. It was mostly due to the racism that was in the city, they disliked people who weren't nords and had a very strict code that they followed, but Capper didn't want to deal with them right now and he knew that the others didn't want to deal with them either. Sharva glared at the Stormcloaks for a moment but remained inside the carriage, so they had no way of seeing it, though Rarity was happy that the ashen khajiit was improving and becoming more open, instead of just being silent while observing everyone else. Other than that they didn't have to wait very long, as Midnight returned a couple of minutes later and informed them that they could get underway, while informing Capper that the boy wanted the guild of assassins to murder an old lady in Riften, Grelod the Kind to be exact, because he hated her.

Capper refrained from passing judgement, rather it seemed a little much for a boy to want the death of an old lady, even if he hated her, where Midnight said nothing about it as they headed back towards Winterhold, as she would check in with the lady when they finally returned to Riften.

When the group got to Winterhold Capper spotted the elf known as Ancano pacing outside the main hall of the College, he was definitely worried about something and seemed to be waiting for someone to arrive, likely another Thalmor agent with news of some kind. Rarity headed inside the main hall for a few moments while the group waited outside, though she, too, returned to them in no time with an item in her hand, which appeared to be a stone door knocker of some kind, causing her to tell Capper that this was to the main door of Labyrinthian. He understood what this meant, either Savos knew about the Staff and didn't claim it when he found it, thus taking the key to make sure no one else could steal it, or he discovered this in the past, during his travels, and took it to prevent someone from entering the ruin. It also meant that they had the key to the area that held the Staff of Magnus, causing him to smile as Rarity stashed it away for the time being, since there was no real need to obtain it right now, so they decided to head back to Whiterun to see if there was anything new with Aela.

Such a thing meant using the gates to head back to Whiterun, which they used without delay after making sure Ancano was distracted by something else, though most of them headed for the main gate while Azure and Tuk Ur headed back towards the domain of the Companions.

"You know, once they get back we should retire for a time. Get some well deserved rest." Capper commented, because he realized that while he was a Daedric Prince, and was therefore no longer bound by the rules that mortals had to follow, he did know they were working too much and hadn't taken many breaks, so the others had to be getting close to getting tired, save for Rarity anyway, "I know we have the carriage, but I think everyone would benefit from sleeping in an actual bed for a night."

"Too right. I like the carriage, but a real bed would be nice for a change." Rarity said, and with everything they had gathered so far she knew Capper could update their rooms, which would be nice when she thought about it, before noticing that the pair were returning to where the gate was located and it looked like they might have been told off by Kodlak, "Azure, Tuk Ur, did something happen?"

"We've been asked to eliminate the coven that gave the Circle the beast blood." Azure replied, keeping his voice low so only their friends could hear him right now, while Tuk Ur was just focused on the task that was ahead of them, causing him to turn towards Capper for a moment, "They're located near Falkreath, and Kodlak told us exactly where to find them."

"Very well, one last mission and then we'll turn in, though you guys can retire for the night if you wish." Capper stated, where the second half was more for Rarity, Midnight, Sharva, and the others, since there was no reason for them to be involved in this event, it was purely for Azure and Tuk Ur to do, causing everyone to nod their heads in agreement.

With that in mind everyone used the gate to return to the Opulent Lands, where Rarity and the others headed back to their portion of the city, to the place that Capper had set up for them, while he, Azure, and Tuk Ur used the Falkreath gate to head out into the wilderness of Falkreath. Once they were on in the small graveyard town the group got moving, where Capper found that the pair seemed to move like each of them were possessed by the desire to please Kodlak, or maybe it was just the call of the wild, due to them being werewolves. Either way they ran off in the direction of the coven's lair and he followed after them, finding that there were no enemies that dared to get in their way, which was a nice thing since it meant the pair could focus on their job and nothing else. While they did so Capper found a path that seemed to lead to a place that looked like it might be a hidden temple of some kind, likely linked to Nocturnal, but for the time being he focused on the path as the warriors reached the outside of the coven's hideout, an area with taproots and other wooden stuff arranged like sacrifices to a wild god or something.

Capper lurked in the shadows as Azure and Tuk Ur headed into the cave, where they discovered that the coven was a group of hagravens, ugly woman that were half raven in terms of their legs and their arms, and they had pets, as one had a spider, three had skeevers, and one had a troll. Sure enough Capper found that the pair rushed out to deal with the hags before any of them could get away from them, but also made sure to wait for them to be separated from each other, where Tuk Ur slew the pets and distracted the hags. That caused their chosen foe to hiss at them and speak in what seemed to be a broken tongue as they hurled fireballs at their targets, but since the kobold was smaller than them he was able to get around the area without being hit, while opening the hagravens up to being beheaded by Azure. The interesting thing was that he also picked up the heads of the hags, which Capper assumed was due to Kodlak's request, though he kept one in his pack while he had Capper store the other four away, safely in a room or chest inside the Opulent Lands.

The collector kobolds did the rest of the work, looting the cave of anything of value, though Capper did hold the golden soul gems of the five hags, as an idea had formed in his head and he was eager to bring it about, so the moment Azure and Tuk Ur were done they headed back to Falkreath.

"You two did well. Didn't even give them a chance to fight back." Capper remarked, which was the truth, the pair had done well in dealing with the hagravens, to the point that the coven really didn't have much of a chance to do anything, though the three of them wasted no time in returning to the Opulent Lands, causing him to produce the five new golden soul gems as he walked off to the side, "Now, I think we'll have a new class of kobolds joining the roster."

His statement was proven right not a few moments later, as the five golden soul gems produced five female kobolds, each of which had a black witch robe on and a witch hat that was sized to fit their heads, and, just like the rest of the reborn of his realm, they were grateful for a second chance at life. Of course he knew that Kodlak might be annoyed with this, if he knew the coven had been given this opportunity, but Capper honestly didn't care, as the Harbinger had sent the pair to wipe out everyone that was in that cave and that was exactly what had happened. Capper also noted that the witch kobolds each had a black raven feather in the rings of their hats, no doubt a connection to their old lives, though none of them said anything about that as some of the other kobolds welcomed the witches to their new lives. It made him happy to see such a thing, as usually people despised opportunities like this, and yet the races of Skyrim seemed overjoyed by this fact, especially those who had miserable lives, causing him to look forward to what the witches might do for them in the future.

With that in mind he retired to the castle and decided to turn in for the night, which his realm reflected since it was following Skyrim's time, though he knew in the morning they would be hard at work once more and he put his excitement to bed so he could get a good night's sleep.

In the morning Capper and the others did what they normally did, had something to eat while the rest of the Opulent Lands woke up, while at the same time both Ithelia and Mora were focused on their own tasks, allowing his group to focus on their next tasks, such as returning to Kodlak and heading to Labyrinthian. Midnight wasn't too worried about checking out Grelod the Kind, she wasn't going anywhere, especially since it looked like the Dark Brotherhood had no idea that the boy wanted an old woman dead, so she felt that they had time before checking on her. Sharva was also eager to head to High Hrothgar at some point, but right now the ashen khajiit was just happy to have a say in her life and not be tied down to whatever her master wanted her to do, so she was fine with them taking their time, especially since the dragons seemed to be going next to nothing as well. Capper honestly found it funny that none of the revived dragons were bothering to attack people, rather it seemed like they just wanted to go back to sleep or something, or maybe their leader was letting them recover from being dead for so long, so when it was time to attack everyone was ready to go.

Once breakfast was over the group used the Whiterun gate and returned to the city as people were starting to get up, but not a few moments later everyone discovered a shocking scene, there were three slain members of the Silver Hand outside Jorrvaskr, causing Azure and Tuk Ur to head inside immediately.

"They must have been posing as merchants or hunters, to get into the city without raising the alarm." Capper remarked, as it seemed to be the only thing that made sense, because he suspected the guards would have been told off if they let a band of bandits enter Whiterun, though he was keeping an open mind since Skyrim was full of morons, before finding that the pair were leaving the mead hall with someone else, Vilkas, and all three looked annoyed, "I take it you discovered something bad while you were in there?"

"Kodlak's dead. Slain by the Silver Hand... we're going to exterminate them." Azure stated, though while he barely knew the old man, he and Tuk Ur were new members after all, he did connect with Kodlak during their time in the mead hall, enough to make him feel anger towards his senior's death, causing Capper to nod as they left the city.

As they returned to the carriage Capper figured out where the Silver Hand were hiding, in a place called Driftshade Refuge that was near Dawnstar, as all he did was ask Mora about it and she told him it was where the members of the group liked to hide out, like a main base of sorts. With that information in hand they boarded the carriage once more and La'nari started them down the road once more, though this time around things were different since Vilkas had decided to stand on top of the carriage, allowing him to look out over the land while his rage boiled. Azure and Tuk Ur kept their rage from affecting them too much, but everyone inside the carriage could see that they were angry and annoyed, especially since there was a chance that they could have defended Kodlak had they not decided to sleep in the Opulent Lands. Of course neither of them blamed Capper for wanting such a thing, since there was no way for him to actually know that such a thing would happen in the first place, so they focused on channeling their anger towards bringing down the Silver Hand.

The journey was silent this time around, no one was in the mood to talk since Azure and Tuk Ur were so annoyed, though Capper knew that would change once they were done with the Silver Hand, and following the path in front of them did let the group note down where some bandit camps were located for later.

Eventually they found the area that the Silver Hand were hiding out in, a lone structure that was up in the mountains near Dawnstar, out of sight and out of mind based on what they could see when the carriage came to a stop, though La'nari and the others remained outside to keep the carriage safe. Once more it was just Azure, Tuk Ur, Vilkas, and Capper, plus some collector kobolds who stayed at the back of the pack, though Capper found that the three werewolves wasted no time and transformed into their beast forms, but this time Azure and Tuk Ur's armor morphed alongside them. Instead of being just brutal beasts they were now werewolves with their armor on, now looking like it didn't weight them down at all, and Capper found that the trio rushed forward, tearing into the surprised pair of guards that were outside the structure. It was quite the surprise to find how differently the pair acted when in their werewolf forms, especially since Azure and Tuk Ur could use both their claws and their weapons, while Vilkas was stuck using his claws and teeth.

Capper watched as they quite literally tore the two guards apart before they had a chance to do anything, allowing them to enter the main entrance as the collector kobolds gathered the loot as Capper collected the golden soul gems with a smile on his face as a new idea came to mind. He still had the soul gem containing Skjor's soul, plus the ones containing the souls of the Silver Hand, meaning he could create a group of warrior kobolds to serve under one of his werewolf kobolds, which he knew would annoy the former members of the Silver Hand, but it was a well deserved fate in his mind. Capper then followed the trio of werewolves into the structure and found that they found their way to where a trio of warriors were patrolling, only for one to scream in terror as Vilkas slammed their head into the ground and clawed the life out of him. The interesting thing was that Azure and Tuk Ur, despite their feral nature and the rage that was inside them, were still calm and collected, as the pair was channeling their power into slaying the enemies that were in their way.

He also found that some of the members of the Silver Hand were weaklings, they were cut down in a single hit, which meant that those ones had to be bandits, but the pair of armed werewolves focused on slaughtering those that were in their way and left the collecting of loot to Capper and his collector kobolds.

For the most part this place seemed like a total ruin, much like some of the other locations they had seen across Skyrim, but that hardly mattered to the trio of werewolves as they tore through the members of the Silver Hand, Vilkas continuing to use his claws as he followed after Azure and Tuk Ur. Capper found that each foe that was cut down had about a hundred and fifty gold in their possession, roughly, so that really added up as more and more of them were cut down, granting him a fair number of golden soul gems to raise as more kobolds. He also discovered that some of their enemies had silver ingots in their bags, treasure to add to the Vault as he picked each one up, so he wasn't about to complain about this turn of events, and the few chests they passed by had some decent loot inside them, which pleased him greatly. The collector kobolds did what they did best, hauling off the chests as well, though he did find that none of the three werewolves were focused on him and what his kobolds were doing, allowing them to focus on looting while the Companions slaughtered the members of the Silver Hand.

There was even a side chamber that Capper unlocked after Azure stopped by it, and his patience was worth it since the trio found some of their enemies inside it, causing him to back off as they tore apart their foes before moving forward, leaving the kobolds to loot the goods once more.

An interesting thing was that one of the kobolds even reported there being more ingots than just silver, as there were steel, copper, and a few elven ingots, all of which he had his collectors gather without delay, while hearing the screams of the now dying members of the Silver Hand as the werewolves spilled their blood and took their lives. He really wasn't surprised by this turn of events, not after what happened in Whiterun, but he also knew not to say anything as he followed behind them, slowing down to loot the slain and claim their golden soul gems for later. Heading into the cellar of the structure was more of the same, the trio of werewolves simply slaughtered the members of the Silver Hand, he collected the golden soul gems, the kobolds collected the loot, and the Silver Hand's forces screamed as each one was slaughtered. It wasn't that the Silver Hand was full of weaklings, even though some of them were, but the rest just didn't have the strength to deal with the three werewolves, like they had lost their best members to Skjor and Kodlak.

With that in mind it really didn't take them long to reach the end of the structure, an area where the leader and the rest of his forces were waiting, but even they didn't last too long as Azure tore off the arms of the leader, while Tuk Ur and Vilkas cut down the other two, and once all of the Silver Hand were slain, and Capper confirmed it, the trio reverted to their base forms with one last howl.

"Looks like they stole the fragments of Wuuthrad." Capper commented, referring to the pieces of the shattered weapon that were on the table that the Silver Hand's leader had been resting at, which Azure collected without delay, though he felt this should have been information that was shared with them, before realizing that the two Companions had likely been told once they were in Jorrvaskr, "So, with the Silver Hand slain, I take it we need to head back to Whiterun?"

"Yes, we should lay Kodlak to rest, and return the fragments for mounting." Vilkas said, though he found that the kobolds did what they did best, looting everything that wasn't nailed down by the looks of it, yet he found that he didn't care about the Silver Hand, rather they deserved to have the little critters take their stuff, "Once we've finished mourning him we'll decide on a new leader... but that's for later."

Capper nodded as the collector kobolds gathered the rest of the loot that was inside the final chamber, including the nordic armor from the leader of the Silver Hand and the bit of ebony was in the chest, but once that was done they headed outside to regroup with the others so they could return to Whiterun and prepare for whatever the future held in store for them.