Skyrim: Band of Thieves

by Blackdrag-rose

Interlude: Saints and Seducers

Capper found that Rarity and the others were good with an hour's worth of rest, no one wanted to rest right now, causing him to nod his head as they started to board the wagon once more, though at the same time the odd bug seemed to wait at the end of the wagon, staying on the ground.

"So... it's really going to come with us?" Rarity asked, because while she was getting used to things in this world she had a feeling that having such a unique critter with them would bring unwanted attention, even though there was something about this bug that unnerved her a little.

"I don't think we have much of a choice. It wants to come along, and will likely follow no matter what we do." Capper said, as that seemed to be what was going on right now, even though it appeared that it was following him more than everyone else, despite it choosing to remain at the back end of the wagon for some odd reason, before he noticed that something else was bothering Rarity right now, "What's wrong?"

"I think someone is following us... there's an argonian in leather armor that's following us." Rarity replied, where her eyes darted off to the side for a moment so Capper knew where to look, but he made no motions to do so right now, since he didn't want to alert the figure that Rarity had spotted, "I was reading the spell tomes we had recovered, trying to learn new spells that might help us out in the future, but caught sight of him around the storeroom... I didn't want to say anything, out of worry that it was just my imagination."

"But now you, and all of us, know for sure. It's likely one of Maven's people." Capper commented, as that seemed to be the most reasonable answer right now, since she seemed very interested in them and their various abilities, so the figure might be here to see what they were capable of and if they were useful to his employer, more than what they had done so far, as it seemed like what Maven would do.

As Rarity got underway, and joined the others on the wagon, Capper turned towards the horse and caught a glimpse of the argonian hunter that was currently following them, as he could see that he was dealing with a troll that was coming at him, him likely attacking it to keep his cover, before Capper got on the wagon. With that done they started to move and Capper had La'nari keep an eye out for the other Seducer camp, only to be surprised when the khajiit pointed out that the camp was not even five minutes ahead of them, as everyone could see it, which was a little odd. Capper glanced around the area for a few seconds before bringing the wagon to a stop, allowing them to get off and face a trio of individuals that were dressed in similar clothing to the first group, bits of fur and leather with one or two pieces of Seducer armor, with each wielding their own weapon, one a bow, another a battleaxe, and the third just an axe and shield. The only downside to this was that one of the bandits, who had to be the leader known as Svarig, had the power to summon what had to be the true Seducers, as the female warrior he summoned had slightly purple skin and seemed annoyed with them as she rushed towards the group to do battle.

Azure drew his greatsword and blocked the incoming attack from the summoned Seducer, finding that she was far stronger than the foes they had fought when they first discovered the area that one of their targets called home, though he pulled it away from where the others were fighting. Midnight and La'nari focused on taking down two of the other foes, the archer and the battleaxe user, where the latter jumped on some of the rocks and avoided the battleaxe as she loosed arrows into her foe's chest, leaving Midnight to jump around and even jump off of her opponent's shoulders before attacking. While the three of them were busy Capper and Rarity focused on Svarig, where Capper utilized his blades and parried the attacks that were coming his way, making sure to avoid any serious damage while huffing every so often, because doing this was taking a lot of his energy right now, but that was okay with him as Rarity struck Svarig's back with lightning. He wasn't sure why the next spell or ability she had gained from drinking the blood of their enemies happened to be that element, but it seemed to have a good effect since it drained their foe's magic, preventing him from summoning additional enemies or even using his magic to fight them.

With that in mind they were able to drain Svarig of his magic and that caused him to stumble, where Capper impaled him in the chest with his sword, not even missing a beat, and his death caused his summon to disappear in an instant, though while that happened the others brought down their foes as well, allowing them to relax.

"Okay, these ones were tougher." La'nari commented, referring to the fact that one of them had commented on the fact that the first group of Seducers had been rather easy to bring down, thanks to having the number advantage, while these three had been more difficult to bring down.

"Yes, but we prevailed and can acquire some additional loot." Capper replied, as there were scrolls on the stone table that was nearby, which also had a few Seducer weapons, a few soul gems, a couple of potions and ingredients, and a crimson red heart that La'nari identified as a daedric heart, expensive to the right buyer.

After claiming those items he and the others gathered the Seducer gear, because there was no sense in leaving this stuff for someone else to collect, Capper found that Svarig had a journal and it had some interesting information, the Seducers and the Saints were working for someone named 'Tharon'. This Tharon was wealthy and was asking the two clans to pillage the caravans for anything that felt 'off' or had even a hint of magic to them, even though he seemed to be living in a sewer for some odd reason, and, according to Svarig, was definitely insane. When he showed La'nari the journal she told him it was going to be hard to pinpoint where Tharon was hiding, because each of the main cities of Skyrim had a sewer, so that meant there were five cities for them to check out, before she mentioned that hunting down the Saints might give them an idea on where to find Tharon. Capper thought about it and agreed with her, both clans were bound to mention their benefactor and one of them might even mention where they could find him, since taking him out might permanently do away with both of the clans, making things better for everyone in the end.

Once they were sure that the area was clear of anything of value, and Capper made sure to store any coins or ingots in his Vault, Capper got the wagon moving once more as they started to make their way back to Whiterun, this time using a new path since it didn't make sense to head back to Riften first.

Fortunately there happened to an inn just beyond the short hill that was beyond Svarig's camp, where Capper told the rest of the group they would be stopping for the evening and made sure they knew that they could take the rooms, as he was fine with sleeping outside in the wagon, especially since he didn't want someone to steal it. As they headed inside, with the promise of bringing food out to him once they had the rooms for the night, Capper noticed that the argonian hunter came up to the inn as well and headed inside, without even acknowledging his existence, showing him that the figure was slightly good at his job. Rarity came out a few moments later and handed him a few bits of food, cheese and meat since that was all the inn keeper had, plus some water, though she found that the bug didn't seem to care about her offering, causing Rarity to shrug as she headed back inside. Capper munched on the food for a time, mostly to see if the argonian was going to come out and see what he was up to, only to find that the figure never came out of the building and that meant he was being left alone with the elytra, which seemed to be enjoying it's freedom while not straying from the wagon.

Once he was sure that the elytra was slumbering, as he heard an odd clicking from it that seemed to be snoozing, which was when Capper slipped into his Vault for a time and made sure that the gold and ingots were perfectly stored away like the rest of the wealth he and the others had gathered so far. While he did that Capper found that the blue crystal shard seemed to glow slightly, more than usual by his reckoning, and the odd crystal seemed to be doing the same as well, like someone was trying to tell him something and he was unable to decipher their message. As he watched for a moment he found that a third item floated into the air, one of the golden diamond rings he and the others had found during their travels, before he felt a strange magical shiver run through his body for a few seconds. Such a thing caused him to pull the Skeleton Key out and allowed him to discover that there was another icon among what he had seen previously, as the new one was made of gold and silver, with what appeared to be a pile of coins and gems with a faint golden dragon coiled around it.

There was something special about this icon, this door, which was why the Key had revealed it to him, now that he had been given a taste of what the Key was actually capable of, and yet he felt like sampling the power that was behind it, as he found the place to insert the artifact and did so without delay, turning it until he was sure it had reached the first position. This time he felt a more powerful surge of magical energy rush through his body, like it was just pure power, the like a mortal wasn't supposed to have or something, or maybe he was just imagining the whole thing since he wasn't used to using magic in the first place. Following that he tapped into the power he was feeling as he focused on the ring and the shard, where he found that he was able to gently remove a little bit of the shard's surface and let the material dance in front of him for a moment, because he found this to be amazing. In the next moment he guessed what the crystal had been silently telling him what to do, he applied the glowing blue material to the outside of the ring and found that it sunk into the material, forming a series of blue runes that were daedric in nature, he recognized some from what he saw on Sharva's body.

Even the diamond had been changed, it was now blue like the shard while not having the glow, meaning it wouldn't draw the attention of others to where he was located, and yet he felt some power inside it, what he had no idea and suspected that he might learn about it's power in the future, causing him to put it on his right pointer finger.

Once the crystal's glow had died down, and he was sure of that, Capper left his Vault behind and returned to the world that the wagon was in, finding that no one was around it, save for the elytra that was chirping in it's sleep, meaning no one had seen his movements and that made him happy that his secret hadn't been revealed yet. He discovered that he was able to sleep for a while without anything happening, which was good since he would be navigating the wagon, and when morning arrived he found that Rarity rose with it, making sure he had some breakfast, in the form of meat and cheese again, while the elytra woke up. Fortunately it looked like everyone else had gotten some decent sleep while they were inside the inn, as that was the whole point of the stop, and when the others were fully prepared to leave he had everyone take their places on the wagon before he started to move away from the inn. La'nari continued to use her map of the land to navigate them as best as she could, though she did know there was a fork in the road up ahead and that the left path would bring them back to Whiterun, where they could use the main path to return to the city's gate before heading towards the first Saint camp to deal with the other clan.

What Capper found was that the main road seemed to be vacant of enemies, which La'nari told the others was likely due to the Stormcloak patrols, since this was part of their portion of Skyrim, though she admitted that it could also be the Imperials as well, since they were looking for information.

Since there was nothing stopping them the wagon was able to reach the fork in the road and turn left without delay, which allowed them to leave the snowy area of Skyrim and return to the plains that were somewhat warmer and more suited for growing crops. There was a giant camp off to their right at one point, though he and his mammoths were a fair distance from the road, meaning they didn't have to worry about being chased by the tall figure, before Midnight noticed something ahead of them, a broken down wagon and someone in a jester outfit tending to it. Capper carefully made his way around the downed vessel before allowing Midnight to get off, where it seemed like one of the wheels had broken during the journey of transporting his mother's coffin to a new crypt, and that he had tried, in vain, to convince someone to aid him. The former Lunar Guard wasted no time in heading up the path that was off to the right, where Capper found that there were two people at the farm that Midnight was heading towards, likely annoyed by the presence of the jester and his attempts to get them to fix his wagon.

Fortunately they didn't have to wait too long for something to happen, the male figure seemed to get angry before calming down, eventually nodding his head before sending Midnight on her way, where she stopped by the jester and told him some sort of good news that caused him to do a jig before handing over a bag of gold.

"Helping a jester convince someone to fix his wagon wheel... definitely the strangest thing I've been paid for." Midnight said, though as she rejoined the others she nodded to Capper and he got them underway without wasting time, where she just handed the bag over, since she trusted him with their gold, just like Azure had done when he cleared out the spiders back in Shor's Stone.

As La'nari commented that this was definitely strange, as a jester in Skyrim was the last thing she was expecting to see while on the road, Capper noticed the amount of coins in the bag, seven hundred and fifty gold coins, where he quickly added two hundred of them to their overall coin purse and the rest to his Vault. After that they continued up the road and found that it was a peaceful venture since there was nothing coming at them, which was still unusual after everything they had seen on the roads of Skyrim, giving them some peace and quiet for a time. One thing they discovered was an area that three guards, Whiterun guards to be exact, were defending or used as their watch area, though all three of them took out three bandits that thought they could take them down, meaning there was no reason for the group to bother the trio. From there it was a simple matter to keep following the road in front of them as they returned to where the meadery rested, finding two more farms on the right side of the road while Capper directed the wagon, and it wasn't long before they crossed another small stone bridge and headed back towards the city.

This time around, however, Whiterun wasn't their destination as Capper followed the western path, allowing them to catch a glimpse of the destroyed watchtower that had been part of the tale about how some guards and Sharva brought down the dragon that had wrecked the place. As they drew closer he was able to confirm a few things, the first being that there had been a dragon, in fact there was a skeleton off to the side that was definitely dragon in origin, even though it was odd that it was missing all of it's flesh and organs. The second thing he confirmed was that this wasn't the dragon that wrecked Helgen, meaning there were definitely more dragons out there, coming back to Skyrim for the first time in forever, which only made him worry that they might encounter one on their travels. He also discovered that no one bothered to loot the dragon, as he discovered a small pile of fallen scales nearby and located a few loose bones, which he realized were valuable since this was the first time anyone in Skyrim would have seen these materials in a long time, so Capper got off the wagon for a couple of moments and used his new magic to warp the skeleton into the area right outside his Vault.

With that done he resumed their journey and brought the wagon by another fort, this one called Fort Greymoor, which was also occupied by another bandit clan, though for the time being Capper focused on tracking down the Saints, because they were the reason the group was here in the first place.

Eventually he found the camp they were looking for, as there was an area off to the left of the road that was much like the first Seducer camp, just a single tent with a large cage and had four people that were wearing different pieces of armor with odd golden pieces on their hands, feet, or head. These had to be the Saints, there was no doubt about it in Capper's mind, to which he made sure the wagon was off the road before noticing how many enemies there were, four like last time and one was an archer, to which he nodded to Rarity as he and the others got ready for melee combat. It was the same plan as when they fought the first Seducer camp, they were going to draw the attention of their enemies and Rarity was going to bite the archer's neck, killing him before he had a chance to loose an arrow, making it a five on three battle until one of the others fell. From there it would be a simple matter to avoid the incoming attacks and lash out when an opening showed itself to one of them, just like they had done previously, though while they did so Capper noticed some similarities between the two odd bandit clans, like how these were only the more agile members with the lighter weapons.

What he meant was that there was the archer with a dagger, one with a sword, another using a dagger, and the leader who had an axe and shield, no heavy weaponry among them, meaning their true leader likely had the two handed weapon, or he would be like Svarig and use magic. In the end it didn't matter to Capper all that much as they brought down the Saints and laid their corpses out in front of them, where the others collected the golden gear, plus the chest piece from a nearby chest, while he, in turn, lifted the golden sword and tested it's weight. The leader of this group had two things for them, one being a note about a blacksmith, a mad one at that, while the main piece was his journal, which detailed how the Saints were making good coin and that their boss, Kinthal, could be found near Karthwasten. Based on the information in hand they knew where to go next, to put an end to both the Saints and Seducers, and he was hoping that Kinthal had information on where their boss could be located, so they could take him out as well and tell Ri'saad the good news.

Capper made sure to loot the nearby chest as well, giving them the complete set of Saints armor, as well as a few gems to add to the collection, before he opened the iron cage and freed a second elytra, this one more greenish than the black one they found in the first Seducer camp, where, sure enough, this one chirped before following him, while the others looted the rest of the camp of it's valuables.

"Those elytra are odd. They just... follow us without being told to do so." La'nari remarked, where they found that Azure had put on the Saint's armor, much like how Midnight put on the Seducer armor once they had a complete set, and noticed how it perfectly fit him, like the armor had molded itself to fit his body.

"Maybe they go with the strong and assume that we're who to follow, since we took out their captors?" Capper inquired, as it seemed like a reasonable assumption to make, even though he felt that such a thing meant they should follow Azure, since he was the strongest of them all, unless they could feel the Key and were following it's unique energy.

La'nari really had no idea what to make of the situation, though she wasn't about to question it as they climbed onto their wagon, after Rarity made sure to burn the archer's body to prevent another vampire from rising, and they set out to find the last camp that needed to be taken out. Of course that meant that the two elytra followed after them without saying a word, rather there was an occasional chirping behind them, like the pair were conversing, if such a thing was possible, but it wasn't frequent enough to have him tell them to stop, so he and his friends focused on the road once more. Capper was still slightly surprised by just how much they were doing and how much they were gathering from a simple job, while Rarity confirmed that the argonian was still following the wagon, meaning Maven really wanted to know their combat skills, no doubt so she could ask them to do tougher jobs. Capper continued to ignore the argonian, since it wasn't worth worrying about right now, but Rarity did report something interesting, that being that some of the local wildlife wanted a piece of him more than they wanted to deal with a wagon and be outnumbered in the process.

There was something that worried him as they finally reached the next fork in the path, as off to their left rested an area with a downed wagon, with dead khajiit by the looks of things, while discovering that the right path went out into the wilds, where Capper glanced at La'nari for a moment since she was the navigator. She looked at her map for a few seconds before saying to use the left path, because according to the map the right one was a long winding path and might take longer to reach the area that was their new destination, while this one happened to be one straight line, following a river, with one area they had to cross. With that in mind it was easy for Capper to agree with her as he headed down the path in question, though he did pause for a moment to remove the couple of bear traps that were in their way, since he didn't want to hurt their horse, and he made sure to loot the dead for any coins or valuables, such as an expensive looking book, but once that was done he got back on the wagon and continued down the path. Ahead of them, at another fork in the path, was a pair of mages dealing with a trio of Imperial soldiers, the latter winning in no time as they marched down, heading towards Falkreath, where he let Midnight off for a moment and she returned with a two small coin pouches, a destruction tome for Rarity, and a staff that they stored away for selling later.

As Capper found the river to follow all he discovered were a few wild animals wanting to harass them, a wolf here and a bear there, plus a few stony mudcrabs, but La'nari pointed each one out and made sure to loose an arrow or two at them, since a bear took more arrows than a wolf, making the journey that much easier for everyone else. Oddly enough there weren't too many people on the road itself, like either this one wasn't traveled very much or there weren't many people heading this way right now, but he was fine with that since it meant they didn't have to stop very often. Rarity spent her time reading from the new tome they had recovered, which seemed to be a basic frost spell that gave her one of the three base elements, though trying it out would have to wait until later, when they were actually in combat or when they found an area with dummies she could train with. Other than that Capper also found an area with a shrine to one of the Divines, with a hunter relaxing near it, and further down the path there was a thicker stone bridge leading to an area with a bunch of odd branch huts, like those who called the area home preferred to live connected to nature, but La'nari told them to keep moving.

Apparently the nature huts were the home of the Forsworn, a force the khajiit had only heard about since she almost never came to this part of Skyrim, so she didn't have a lot of information to share with them, but she knew they were dangerous, far more than the Saints and Seducers, so it was best if they didn't bother those people.

Following that they crossed another stone bridge and passed by a decent sized waterfall, before finding a dark elf in heavy armor, steel plate, who informed them that she was a mercenary and that she was going to be dealing with some danger in the nearby area, the Forsworn they had passed by. La'nari wished her well and had Capper keep moving, since the lady had no chance in her mind, especially since she had an iron axe and shield as her weapons, before advising Capper to use the right path when they reached the next fork in the road. Such a thing was supposed to bring them by a small mine and yet another stone bridge, where she told them that they needed to turn to the right once more, though as they got near where she was talking about Capper stopped as he noticed three Forsworn rushing down the left side of the path, away from the path they needed to follow. It appeared that some guards were coming out to clear out the Forsworn, especially since they were close to Markarth, though since they drew the Forsworn away Capper was able to cross the bridge and head down to the right, getting away from the area without enemies rushing them.

After that Capper focused on following the rest of the path, passing by a cave in the process, but it wasn't important as he followed La'nari's directions again, noting that there were still no travelers to worry about, and the constant lack of threats allowed them to reach Karthwasten in no time at all.

As it turned out the area in question appeared to be a mine, with buildings for the workers and owner, though their targets were on the top of the hill to the right of the path, as Midnight took to the air a little to track down the camp, and once she had done so they left the wagon behind. Sure enough there were three Saints, the one with magic being Kinthal since he was able to an actual Saint with the fairer skin, though they separated their enemies like they had done before, meaning Azure tackled the summoned warrior, Capper and Rarity dealt with Kinthal, while Midnight dealt with the other melee bandit and La'nari focused on the archer. The lightning bolts really helped out as it meant that Kinthal's main power was gone and that he had to focus on his weapon, which was blocked by Capper's new blade, and when Rarity stabbed the leader in the side of his body Capper stabbed him in the heart. As the summoned warrior disappeared it became easier for them to deal with the remaining foes, where La'nari put a few arrows into the archer as Midnight severed the head of her foe, allowing the group to rest and claim the golden gear for their collection.

Capper, however, found a journal on Kinthal that had some interesting information, this group had found a unique sword and delivered it to Thoron, who was waiting in the Solitude sewers, causing him to wonder if it was the same weapon that the figure had asked him to recover, while the others gathered their spoils.

"So, we know where Thoron is... should we take him down now?" La'nari asked, because that seemed like the reasonable thing to do, as Solitude was probably four or five hours away from their current position, meaning they would arrive in the middle of the night, giving them time to search the sewers for Thoron, "I know Maven said that we had until the end of the week to return, and I'm sure she'll start taking from the reward if we're late, but... well, given the system he's established with the two clans, them bringing him stuff every now and then, he'd notice the absence of the clans and might be able to replace them before we tell Maven of our success."

"No, I agree with you. Thoron needs to die. Now." Capper stated, as he understood La'nari's worry that Thoron might have a whole new set of people lined up to replace the two clans if they failed him, plus there was the matter of the sword that was in his possession, before he glanced out at the area and beckoned towards the argonian hunter, who realized he had been spotted and walked over to their wagon, "Tell me: can you send a letter to Maven?"

"I... would have to return to one of the cities and hire a courier, but I can." the argonian replied, where he looked at them for a time, no doubt to come to terms with the fact that they might have seen him a long time ago and were only now talking to him because they had need of him in some manner, "Why do you ask?"

"We've discovered the location of the one controlling the Saints and Seducers, and are moving to take him out. I'd like you to send an update to Maven about our progress." Capper answered, though this was less about the gold and more about the safety of Skyrim, because Kinthal's journal indicated that Thoron seemed to be trying to 'bridge' something, meaning it was in their best interests to take him out, before he succeeded in his plans, "I think she'll be happy to know that we're taking care of the root of the problem, without having to be told to do so."

The argonian nodded and started to retrace his steps as he headed back in the direction of Markarth, allowing the group to climb onto their wagon once more before turning around so they could leave Karthwasten, as it was time for them to bring down Thoron so they could return to Maven with good news and then face whatever the future held in store for them.

Comments

[Xalok]

This time around, however, Whiterun wasn't their destination as Capper followed the western path, allowing them to catch a glimpse of the destroyed watchtower that had been part of the tale about how some guards and Sharva brought down the dragon that had wrecked the place. As they drew closer he was able to confirm a few things, the first being that there had been a dragon, in fact there was a skeleton off to the side that was definitely dragon in origin, even though it was odd that it was missing all of it's flesh and organs. The second thing he confirmed was that this wasn't the dragon that wrecked Helgen, meaning there were definitely more dragons out there, coming back to Skyrim for the first time in forever, which only made him worry that they might encounter one on their travels. He also discovered that no one bothered to loot the dragon, as he discovered a small pile of fallen scales nearby and located a few loose bones, which he realized were valuable since this was the first time anyone in Skyrim would have seen these materials in a long time, so Capper got off the wagon for a couple of moments and used his new magic to warp the skeleton into the area right outside his Vault.

I always found it odd that the bone of the Dragon stay there after looting it, for we as players loot the bones so why are they still there after we loot?

[Yogiboy]

Yay new chapter! Can't wait for the next one.

[Blackdrag-rose]

11905378 I'm glad you liked the chapter. We'll be wrapping up the current Interlude segment soon and then get into one of the meaty arcs of the story.