It didn't take Capper or Midnight very long to emerge from Angarvunde, where they found that the sun was still in the sky, though it was in the afternoon now, thus allowing them to walk down the road they had traveled after first meeting up with La'nari and return to the fort that was their main base without wasting too much time. There they found that the rest of the clan was in a good mood, due to the fact that they had taken down a number of the bandits from Faldar's Tooth, not to mention the fact that they were able to loot the fallen enemy bandits for everything of worth. From what Capper could tell the enemy clan had some wealth on them, which was either due to their location in relation to Riften or the fact that one of them must have made good bets in their gambling area, since they forced wolves to fight for their entertainment. Of course all of the collected gold from the bandits was gathered, counted, and then given out fairly to everyone in their clan, which wasn't all that great since each of them roughly got about ten coins apiece, but this was the way Bek-Kajin preferred to do things, as equal rewards meant no threat of being overthrown.
Of course that only extended to the gold they acquired, as everything else that might be of use was either given out to those that needed it, like an upgrade to an item or piece of armor, or was added to the collection of items they would be taken to the city to be sold to the local merchants, but they would give bigger rewards to the highest contribution of whatever was going on, to insure everyone did their best.
"Everyone has one more reason to celebrate: with the forces residing in Faldar's Tooth weakened, our leaders have talked and have decided it's time to strike them down." Azure commented, speaking to the pair as they returned to the area that had been given to them when they first joined the clan, though Capper knew that Azure was only putting up with both of the bandit chiefs because it meant he could punish more bandits, and they discovered that he was wearing steel armor now, "I will be joining the vanguard, charging into the fort with the others, though I'm sure they'll ask both of you to join us... since both of you did prove yourselves in that last battle."
"Well, I'll probably be focused on collecting the loot for counting and distributing later, but Midnight will be a good addition to the assault team." Capper said, which was the truth, Midnight was more suited for combat than he was, though at the same time he noticed that Rarity was sitting on one of the beds and seemed to be hugging herself, no doubt still dealing with the fact that she had killed someone, even though it was in self-defense, "I take it she'll be staying here?"
"Not quite. Brurid wants her to join us... not to fight, but to watch. He knows she's more sheltered than the rest of us and is trying to help her get used to the world in a more crude way." Azure quietly replied, as if he was worried that someone else might overhear them talking about one of their leaders, though Capper was starting to see a difference in the two leaders that ruled over this fort, causing the former Solar Guard to sigh for a moment, "This land must be harsh if everyone is so used to people dying all the time... it's so different from the land we've called home."
Capper and Midnight nodded, as Skyrim was definitely beyond what they were expecting and they had only seen a portion of what it had to offer, and that even applied to the people, there were rules and events that Skyrim's people were used to, while their group was only coming to terms with taking a life. He and the two former guards were different from the rest of the population of their home world, as he was used to stealing from all sorts of people and seeing the consequences if one failed to uphold a bargain, while the guards were used to fighting enemies and protecting the citizens of Equestria. Rarity, on the other hand, was a hero due to her being able to wield one of the Elements of Harmony and her involvement in taking back the capital from the Storm King, but even then this was the first time she would have done anything like this. It was only natural that she wouldn't be used to this sort of thing and needed to come to terms with it if she wanted to survive in this harsh environment, which Capper knew had to be Brurid's reasoning for having her come along for the raid, to help her get over what she was currently feeling.
With that in mind he and Midnight headed out to find their leaders, who were in one of the halls of the fort and they quickly showed off the loot they got from the nearby ruin, causing the pair to glance at each other before shaking their heads, as all of it belonged to those that had looted it. That told Capper that Bek-Kajin had an interesting set of rules that he lived by and he expected a few of them to be respected by his clan, even his fellow leader, especially when it came to the loot that had been obtained by the members of their clan. From what he could tell the argonian preferred to share the loot taken from the fallen and spread it out among the rest of their large clan, to help them survive and thrive, but when it came to the loot that was inside a ruin, however, he preferred that the loot went to those who claimed it, since they put in the hard work to even claim the items in the first place. Both he and Brurid did expect them to trade their loot for other items, if they really wanted to share it with the rest of the clan, an interesting set up in Capper's mind, but for the time being the pair returned to the chamber that Azure and Rarity were in, to rest up a bit before the raid.
As it turned out they didn't have to wait too long, as Bek-Kajin called for everyone to gather and Capper found that most of the clan was gathering outside the fort, though instead of giving them a speech or something he started to make his way down the road, leaving Brurid and a few of their clan mates behind to defend their own base.
Capper was still surprised that they were coming down this route again, so soon after traveling up and down this stretch of road twice already so far, but he kept that to himself as he, Midnight, and the rest of their forces reached the bridge that had been used by the other bandits. This time around there was a guard on the road and he stopped for a moment as he found the force moving, though a single statement from Bek-Kajin caused him to turn around and calmly walk away from the area, no doubt because a bandit clan war was something he didn't want to get involved in. With that in mind they walked across the bridge and approached the large fort that was on the edge of a lake, and had a good view of Riften, though as the group walked forward they found that whoever was in charge of the fort called for the others in their clan to come out. That was when a few archers appeared on the wall facing their direction and they readied their arrows, causing the clan to scatter and take up defensive positions, some using shields to protect themselves from arrows while another group tracked down an entrance to use.
As that happened, and Midnight used a few of her arrows as well, Capper noticed something that would help them out, as part of the stone wall happened to have an iron cage door that seemed unprotected, to which he rushed forward and found that the enemy bandits were freaking out, but they reacted too late as he quickly picked the lock and opened the door.
"Guys, I've opened the way forward! Go get them!" Capper stated, where the rest of their clan mates noticed the now open door and started to rush over, quickly finding a set of stairs leading them up to where all of their enemies were located, a fact that caused the bandits of Faldar's Tooth to turn on them without delay.
Unfortunately for their enemies Azure tore through their defenses and opened the way for the others to join him, where he was joined by Midnight, who was the first to ascend the steps, before the rest of their assault force caught up with them, a fact that made it impossible for the Faldar Clan to recover. While they did that Capper checked out the area and found a wooden path leading up to a tent, one that had a locked chest inside it, causing him to pull out both a sack to place the loot in and the strange key he was beginning to like, as an unbreakable lockpick was a great thing to have. The chest had a sack of gold coins, which the clan would appreciate, and a few potions, though he made sure to take the gold that was resting on the table above the chest as well, before making his way down to a locked door that seemed to be part of the higher section of the fort. Since they had cleared out so many of the enemy clan before the assault, and were devastating what remained of them, he found that there were no enemies to worry about and discovered another locked chest that he unlocked without wasting time, before reaching the highest point of the entire fort, which seemed to be the domain of the chief.
There were a few enchanted pieces in the area, they had runes on them that suggested such a thing, and a large chest that had a decent amount of coins, a few gems, and a few items that could be sold to the people of Riften, so he made sure all of the enchanted items were inside it before letting some of the stronger bandits carry it off, allowing him to focus on a book that spoke of 'proper lock design'.
"This will be useful for helping Midnight and Rarity." Capper commented, though at the same time he noticed an interesting passage, the author talking about how all of this would be rendered useless if someone happened to be in possession of what he, or possibly she since the author seemed to be an unknown individual, called the 'Skeleton Key', "And I might want to read it later... it might have some good information."
With the book in hand Capper headed down into the lowest portion of the exterior, as Azure, Midnight, and some of the other bandits were going to head inside and see what else this place had to offer them, and since he seemed to be their best lock breaker it was clear that one of them wanted him in the party to help get the loot. Rarity was with them as well, since this was to help her get used to the idea of killing people without falling ill every single time, and she stayed near the back of the pack as they delved into the depths, allowing the others to focus on fighting and looting. One thing Capper found was that there were cages with wolves trapped inside a few of them, being trained to be attack animals for the gambling that was taking place in this fort, where some of the bandits opened the unlocked cages and put down the wolves. Of course there were also a few more members of the Faldar Clan down in this portion of the fortress, unaware of the assault that had taken out the majority of their people, but Capper allowed the others to focus on them as he carefully picked the locks on a couple of chests and doors.
From what he could tell the real loot was coming from the slain bandits themselves, as some of them did carry more loot on them than what he and some of the others from his clan were expecting to discover when they looted the bodies, but this just made his clan happier than before. In addition to that there was the gambling den, where a lot of gold was located, not to mention a large chest that was behind a locked door, so while the clan dealt with the remaining enemies Capper did what he did best, he unlocked it and added a few more items to his bag, more gold, odd pearl colored gems, a few books that had magical runes on the front, and a few more potions. He even tracked down a room that had a table that seemed to be the location that one of their enemies had been gathering their winnings, or had been counting them in front of those who had lost a bet earlier, and he collected one hundred gold coins in the process. By the time he and everyone else reached the end of the fortress, allowing them to head out into the area that he had unlocked the door in, Capper was feeling good about the amount of gold they had obtained just now, and was even excited by the potential profit they might gain from selling all of the excess items that he recovered from the various chests and containers.
He also found that Azure was pleased with their deed, he really didn't like bandits and was keeping his opinions bottled up around their clan, while Midnight had found a better bow, dwarven to be exact, to replace her old one and had a few more arrows in her quiver, before discovering that Rarity was nowhere to be seen.
"Strange, I thought she was right behind us." Capper commented, though before Azure and Midnight could say anything on the matter they discovered where their companion had wandered off to, she had apparently moved out to check out the rest of the fort, areas that had been cleared, and had found another enemy bandit that must have been lurking away from the rest of the clan, one she had killed since her rapier was in her hand and she was huffing, "We should check on her."
As it turned out the bandit that Rarity had killed was a dark elf of some kind with an odd red attire that was different from what all of the others in this fort had been wearing, and the reason Capper thought of it as another type of dark elf was due to the small fangs that were in the slain bandit's mouth, partly covered in blood, but it was hard to tell whose it might be since they missed the fight.
"Rarity, are you alright?" Midnight asked, because while it looked like their friend was more used to death, she wasn't in the process of throwing up or anything, it was clear that she must have exhausted herself to make sure this foe didn't kill her, meaning he must have been slightly stronger than all of the others.
"No... I mean, yes. This ruffian attacked me, no doubt thinking I was an easy target, and I'm sure his teeth made contact with my neck, but I fought him back." Rarity replied, where she withdrew a piece of cloth and cleaned the edge of her blade, since she didn't want it to rust or anything, though the rest of the group wasn't surprised by her doing that since she had taken the article back while they were in their base of operations, "I don't know if I'll ever get used to killing people, but for the time being I'll do my best to keep my thoughts on the matter to myself... wouldn't want the others to think I'm soft and expel me at the worst possible moment."
Capper nodded and told her that if she wanted to talk about it he was sure that all three of them could assist her in coming to terms with what she had done, though at the same time he noted that it didn't seem like there was any damage to her neck, despite Rarity's thoughts on the matter. He could only think of three reasons for such a thing: the first being that she had been able to push back the dark elf before he tore into her neck; the second was that she had already healed the wound with one of the weaker healing potions that were in their possession; and the third one, the more unrealistic one, was that she had been wounded and her body healed it without her noticing. Either way there wasn't much they could do about this turn of events, other than looting the slain dark elf of his valuables and handing those to Rarity, though as they started to head down to where the others were gathering, to march back to their base, Capper found that someone was watching this fortress from afar. What he could tell was that the pair in question, as there were two people off in the distance, happened to be wearing plate armor, stronger than steel based on what he had gathered so far, and it appeared that they were in the middle of discussing something as they headed back into Riften.
Capper couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to come from them taking down the Faldar Clan, since this would open the way for some of the guards in Riften to retake the fort to better protect the roads around their fair city, but there was nothing he could do about it as he and the others rejoined their clan.
"All of you did well, taking down an enemy clan and looting everything of value that they had." Bek-Kajin remarked, where it was easy for them to tell that he was pleased with their actions, especially since this meant they were now the only clan on this side of Riften, since Capper knew that there was another one on the main road that stopped at the main gate, "And let us have some cheers for our newest members, who have shown that they are worthy to be called friends and allies... even that includes Rarity, who protected herself and others from a shadowy assassin that could have hurt us."
As the members of their clan cheered, however, it was hard to tell if he was weaving a false tale to make Rarity feel at home with them or if that was how he saw the situation when it unfolded, but for the time being Rarity seemed fine with this as she offered some smiles to the rest of the clan. While that happened they headed back to their base of operations without delay, as it was getting dark and there was dinner to be had, in fact there was more food than they were expecting since a few of their fellows had claimed everything that was in the kitchen area of Faldar's Tooth. With what they were carrying it sure looked like they might be able to feed a small army for weeks, maybe even a month or two, without having to worry about food being a problem, which would please Brurid when he learned that piece of information. While they walked back to their base Capper told Bek-Kajin about the loot he had recovered in the fort and that really put a smile on the faces of the rest of the clan, because gold talked and so far everyone had realized that this venture was turning out to be more profitable than they could have possibly hoped.
When they got back to their fort it was easy for them to see that Brurid was pleased with this turn of events, the destruction of another clan and them claiming all of the treasure to be distributed among the rest of their people, so Capper followed him to the area that they stored the unsorted loot in and deposited the share for the clan inside it. Because he was a thief, a specialist that was gathering more loot that would make everyone rich, both Brurid and Bek-Kajin were fine with him taking a larger share of things, like two hundred gold coins and even a few gems, like a ruby and a sapphire, which he gladly took since it meant they saw him as a higher rank in the clan. In addition to that supper, as it turned out, was meat and potatoes with some of their companions drinking mead, something that the group decided not to worry about for the time being, but Capper was happy to see that everyone was having fun, no doubt thinking about their bright futures. Capper also found that they would be returning to Riften in a day or two, as there was loot to sell and their superiors were expecting them to bring back another good haul, especially since half of the gold from the previous visit went to him and his team, where it had been divided into five shares.
When night started to fall, however, Capper excused himself and made his way to the highest peak of their fort, the tower to be exact, and found that no one was around for the time being, where he pulled out the book he had taken from Faldar's Tooth and opened it to the passage he had found that piqued his interest.
"Fascinating." Capper remarked, as the passage spoke about the 'Skeleton Key', a wonderful lockpick that was said to be neigh unbreakable, though there were sections of the text that had been ruined, either due to the book's age or due to the drunken nature of the bandit who had the book before him, but there was something that caught his interest, "What's this? It can unlock 'anything'?"
That intrigued Capper as he pulled out the odd key, which could very well be the Skeleton Key now that he thought about it, as he considered how he could go about testing it's power and seeing if it worked as advertised, though it was hard to just land on a single thing to test out. The concept of 'anything' wasn't just limited to the world around them, such as locks and vaults, rather it likely meant that it could open doors that were better left sealed, such as making a mortal into a god, sort of like how Twilight Sparkle went from a powerful unicorn and transformed into a far stronger alicorn. If that sort of growth was possible for her, and was possible for the villains when he recalled the tales of Tirek and Queen Chrysalis, it made him take a moment to wonder what sort of power he could awaken if he tried to use the Key for such a thing, or what his companions could unlock if he shared this with them. He also debated whether he should be doing this or not, since there was a chance someone could feel what he was about to do and come to investigate the true usage of the Key's true power, though that was followed by him making up his mind as he held it out in front of him.
Instead of focusing on himself for the time being Capper instead focused on all of the wealth they had collected before he and his companions had been teleported to this world, that he didn't want to lose anything else from their world, and the Key seemed to respond to his decision as he pulled it down and opened a portal in front of him. The area on the other side, as it turned out, was a small flat area, roughly about the size of the room he and the others had been given, in what had to be the depths of space, or 'Oblivion' as the mage of their clan had called the area in question. It seemed to be devoid of any hostiles, rather it was just a flat area with a silver, almost crystalline, floor, where he found a silver crystal floating in the air in front of him, like the figure that had called out to him, but nothing happened as he stared at the object. With that in mind he carefully placed the bag of coins he had taken from the vault previously and set them below the crystal, though once that was done he stepped through the portal and closed it with a thought, only to reopen it a few seconds later and discovered that it brought him back to the same place, causing him to smile for a moment.
He now had a secret vault to hide their true treasure in, to keep their wealth safe from those who might seek to steal it, that only he knew the way to, even though he had to add some walls to make it an official vault, though it only made him even more eager to see what the future held for him and the others.