Skyrim: Band of Thieves

by Blackdrag-rose

Clan: Angarvunde

After making the deal with Tonilia, and trading the crate of goods for the payment, Capper let La'nari go out and purchase the items they needed for the rest of the clan, which involved purchasing a fair bit of meat, fish, and whatever items she had on the list she had been given before their departure. It was nice to purchase new items and help out their clan, though at the same time Capper found that his mind was on the odd key that had been in Mercer's forgotten pouch, it was a hard thing to just stop thinking about, especially since he could sense it's power now. He really had no idea what it was, no doubt due to the fact that he wasn't a native to this world, and while he knew that he could ask about it, since La'nari might know about it or could point him in the direct of someone who might know of it, but he decided against it for the time being. That was in the off chance that it might be an item of the Guild Master for the Thieves Guild, like a badge of office he guessed, and he really didn't want to invite unwanted trouble into their lives, so for right now he would keep the key's existence a secret, until he knew more about it.

As he finished thinking about that, however, La'nari and the others returned with a few bags that had to be the goods they needed to get for the rest of the clan, causing him to nod as they headed out to the wagon and loaded it up before taking their places and leaving Riften.

"We managed to get everything that was on the list, which will make our chiefs happy." La'nari remarked, where she took a moment to pull down her hood and wipe the sweat that had been forming on her forehead, as she had been worried that things would have gone wrong by now and was glad they were able to do this without any problems arising, "I'm just glad Mercer wasn't in a foul mood today... I honestly thought he was going to cut me off from using the guild's resources."

"Darling, he was most definitely in a bad mood. Trouble with contacts I imagine?" Rarity said, as it was frustrating that the Guild Master had lowered the value on their goods and forced Capper to hand over one of the gems he had pocketed during their brief time in the ancient vault, in fact she knew that her mentor and Midnight didn't like him all that much for that fact, and she could imagine why Mercer was annoyed.

La'nari nodded, as that was a good reason since the guild had failed a lot of jobs lately, hence her leaving in the first place, so it was only a matter of time until the remaining contacts started to sever their bonds with the guild, thus leading to Mercer being in a bad mood since less clients meant less gold. As far as she knew there was only one person in Riften that even had a need for the guild's existence, which was Maven Black-Briar, something they really shouldn't get involved with since that was a headache none of them wanted right now, causing Capper to bow to her wisdom on the matter. They stopped talking for a few moments as they passed by the other gate that allowed people to enter the city, in fact this time it looked like the guards might be ready to admit people from the southwestern entrance, likely due to Capper calling out their scheme at the main gate. Such a thing meant that the people who were coming this way in the future wouldn't have to go around the city, and potentially be attacked by bandits that might be watching Riften, which would be good for everyone in the future, both the citizens and probably their clan since it meant more people would be traveling.

As they continued down the road that was in front of them La'nari pulled out her bow as she noticed something that was just ahead of them, a group of bandits, four of them to be exact, though he could tell that none of them belonged to the clan that he and his companions had joined, due to the fang marks on their armor, and it looked like more were on their way across a nearby bridge.

"Damn... bandits from Faldar's Tooth, the fort closest to Riften... they must have seen the crate and realized that we might have gotten some gold from it's contents." La'nari remarked, though for her this was a terrible match up, because while the majority of them had some sort of weapon, since she had her bow and dagger while Azure had the greatsword and she was sure that Midnight had a pair of blades, but that left Capper and Rarity defenseless, "We're close to our base, but we cannot afford to send anyone to get reinforcements... they'll be picked off by the other clan before they can get too far."

"You've got me, remember?" Midnight stated, opening her wings for a moment as the bandits that were ahead of them just stared at them for a few seconds, though Capper could tell that they were getting ready for battle, causing La'nari to bring her hand to her forehead as she realized that fact, while at the same time Midnight handed Capper her weapons, "Hold them off for as long as you can! I'll go get reinforcements."

"Fly Midnight! We will fight these foes with all our might." Azure said, where he stared at the assortment of bandits that were in front of the wagon and drew his new weapon, because while Capper had been studying all of the ins and outs of their clan, and that even included the fortress itself, he had done what he could to learn how to actually wield his greatsword, even if it all he had learned was the basics.

Capper really didn't have experience fighting, as most of the time he was working in the shadows and letting others fight if it was a necessity, even though he did help take back Canterlot and used Spike as a flame spreader to take care of a group of guards, but in that moment he readied himself as he and Azure removed themselves from the wagon. While they did that Midnight took to the air and headed back to their base of operations, while at the same time La'nari nocked an arrow as she turned her focus on the clearly melee bandits that were in front of them, leaving Rarity to keep an eye on the bandits that were near the stone bridge that was close to their position. The pair getting off the wagon seemed to trigger all of the foes that were in front of them, as the four bandits that were close by rushed them, causing Azure to steel himself as he took a step forward and brought his weapon down, slashing open the chest of one of their foes, as he wasn't wearing armor at all, a bad move for sure. As that one was dropped La'nari loosed her arrow and it struck the calf of another bandit, slowing her down in the process while the third came at Capper, who steadied himself as he parried the incoming axe with both of the blades that had been left with him, though the fourth got by them and rushed at Rarity.

He knew that was bad, as Rarity was definitely not cut out for battle, due to the fact that she used ribbons and whatnot to deal with her foes, items she didn't have in this world, and he could see her freaking out over the idea of fighting someone, but the bandit had another weapon on his belt, a steel rapier that slipped out of it's sheath, causing Rarity to throw herself at it before driving it into the bandit's chest.

"Well what do you know... there's hope for her yet." La'nari remarked, though at the same time she loosed a second arrow and dealt with the bandit she had struck, taking her down before she could do anything else, allowing her to what as both Capper and Azure finished off the last one that was in front of them.

As they took down the first group two things happened, the main force of enemies, at least another ten bandits, stepped off the bridge and approached their position, while the second was that Midnight landed near Capper and Azure with a smile on her face, telling the group that her mission had been a success. Sure enough they could see Brurid and Bek-Kajin, along with at least half of their clan members, approaching the enemies from the backside, surprising the forces of the other clan in the process, allowing La'nari and Midnight to tend to Rarity, who was still shaking, as Capper searched the slain bandits. None of them seemed to have much on them, that much he could see, but he was able to collect a number of things, such as thirty gold coins in total, a few low quality gems, a few lockpicks, and their various weapons. He was only collecting the weapons because it would be nice to have some spares in the fort, just in case they needed more if one broke or new people joined them, both of which were possible, and he knew they could get away with this since La'nari wasn't worried at all.

The reason for that was because Bek-Kajin was leading the assault on the other clan, their warriors cutting down those that dared to move against them, causing the surviving trio to flee, allowing Brurid's portion of the group to claim more loot from the deceased before clearing the way for the wagon to move forward.

"This land is definitely very exciting." Capper remarked, where he returned to the front of the wagon and resumed moving towards the fort, though this time around he made sure to go at a slower pace so the rest of the clan could place their loot in the back, while La'nari focused on Rarity, who was definitely feeling a little sick after taking someone's life, causing him to turn to Midnight as she walked nearby as he passed her the note he took from Mercer's pouch, "What do you think of this?"

"Treasure in a ruin? Sounds promising, provided it hasn't been looted yet." Midnight said, in fact it might be a fun time, just see if there was more loot to add to their collection, while letting Rarity come to terms with what she had done, which she knew Azure and La'nari could help her with in no time, before she frowned as she noticed something, "Only... I have no idea where this 'Angarvunde' might be located."

La'nari overheard their conversation and mentioned that the ruin in question was just up the road from their base, in fact it happened to be a recent project that someone was working on and there was a chance that workers might still be moving stones out of the way so the ruin could be accessed at last. Of course she had no idea what this 'treasure' was that the note spoke of, but she had to assume that it was a bunch of gold or items that could be sold for a profit, before she informed the pair that if they wanted to go exploring they had to clear it with their leaders. La'nari was sure that both Brurid and Bek-Kajin would be okay with them exploring a bit, because of the large haul they had brought with them, meaning they might expect more treasure to be brought and shared with the rest of the clan. Capper then found that their new friend was right, both of their leaders were fine with the idea, so when they returned to the fort he let Azure handle the wagon, while Rarity stayed with La'nari, causing him to hand Midnight her blades before he acquired a blade of his own, steel from one of the bandits that attacked them, and the former Lunar Guard also took a bow with some steel arrows.

With their preparations complete the pair departed from the fort as the rest of the clan looked into the crate of items they had purchased from Riften and started to pass stuff around, though Capper found that La'nari's information was right, the passage to Angarvunde was literally ten minutes up the road, allowing them to enter an area with wooden scaffolding as they spotted an annoyed dunmer turning towards them.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't hear either of you enter this place." the lady said, where Capper and Midnight found that she wasn't even remotely prepared to be a treasure hunter, she was wearing casual clothing, like some of the citizens of Riften, and she had a steel dagger as her weapon, before the lady sighed and tried to calm herself down, "Sorry, I'm just annoyed by the fact that my cowardly work force ran off at the first sign of trouble, especially when we were on the verge of great wealth."

"What could have made them run off? The only things left in these places are corpses, right?" Midnight inquired, mostly due to the fact that she and Capper had no idea what to expect, this was the first time they were visiting one of the ruins that seemed to dot Skyrim's landscape, and based on what she was seeing the lady didn't even catch the fact that they had no experience in dealing with places like this.

"Well, yes, but they probably haven't seen the type that can get back up and wander around... draugr, to be exact." the lady replied, something that allowed Capper to understand that the lady had assumed that Midnight was referring to both the still dead corpses and those that were still moving, but this was good information to know for the future, since it would give them something to build off of, "There are three draugr standing between me and the treasure, but I need more manpower to clear the way so it can be claimed."

"Maybe we can work out an arrangement of sorts? We take care of the draugr, and also open the way to the treasure, and we can split it evenly?" Capper inquired, because he knew that the lady would want some of the wealth that was said to be in this place, otherwise it was a waste for her to come here in the first place, so by offering to split the treasure they could get some and she could get some.

The lady, identifying herself as Medresi, figured that allowing them to head into the ruin was better than her searching for a whole new crew that was capable of fighting the undead, though she also handed over a key that she claimed was for two doors that were deeper in the ruin, or so her notes claimed. With the key in hand both Capper and Midnight crouched and continued down the passage, finding that it changed from the scaffolding to a rocky path that brought them to the start of the ruin, a chamber of smashed pots with one that was intact, one that had a few golden coins and a ruby inside it. After Capper pocketed the loot they carefully moved into the next chamber, larger than the first one, before discovering three of the walking corpses that had been mentioned, draugr to be exact, which seemed like ancient warriors brought back from the grave, despite their lack of armor and their crude weapons. Instead of engaging the undead in a fight Capper and Midnight found some good vantage points, allowing Midnight to silently draw and ready an arrow that she loosed into the chest of the closest draugr, causing it to look down at the arrow before collapsing into a heap.

Once they confirmed that the undead stayed dead, after extinguishing whatever magic was keeping the first one alive, the pair turned on the other two that were patrolling the area, where Midnight struck down the second with an arrow as Capper stabbed the third in the back, tearing through it's weak armor as he brought it down.

As Midnight collected her arrows, and the arrows of the archer she had struck down, Capper found that there were definitely more doors in the area, two to be exact, so he had his companion backtrack to tell Medresi that the main chamber was clear as he made his way to the door on their left, opening it with the key they had been given. The passage on the other side of the door happened to be devoid of enemies for the time being, allowing the pair to study how the ruin was constructed, as it made the ancient nords look like masters of their trade, before discovering a hole that lead to a lower area. Midnight loosed an arrow into the head of the draugr that was in the way, clearing the immediate area so they could drop down into the lower passage, though as she dealt with all of the enemies that were in their way Capper checked out the urns, pots, and any chests they walked by. So far he wasn't too impressed, most of the containers had a few coins here and there, so he had to hope the treasure that was in this place was worth the effort that he and Midnight were putting in, especially since none of the draugr seemed to have coins or gems in their possession when they checked the fallen out.

While they continued down the passage Capper did find a chest that had a trap attached to it, there was a mechanism on the side that he could actually unlock, though while Midnight kept an eye out for trouble he discovered that when he moved to pick the lock the brass key from Mercer's pouch appeared in his hand. He raised an eyebrow as he noticed that and quickly returned it to his bag, only for it to reappear in his hand when he turned back to the lock, causing him to realize that this was a lockpick of some kind as he slipped it into the lock. Such a thing was followed by a secondary discovery, this lockpick had incredible durability, because part of him had wanted to test it out and actually tried to unlock the trap in the wrong area, only for him to discover that it wouldn't break, causing him to let out a light chuckle. An unbreakable tool was amazing and it made Capper realize how Mercer could become the best thief in the province, if he had such a powerful lockpick like this in his possession, and it wasn't long before he undid the trap and opened the chest, finding a few good quality gems, a ruby and a sapphire, with a small pouch of gold nearby.

After claiming the treasure he and Midnight got moving once more, where they moved into a chamber that had alcoves in certain places, some of which had draugr sleeping in them, something that caused Midnight to take point by loosing some of her arrows into the sleeping undead, leaving Capper to gather the loot. She knew that while he was okay with fighting, given his involvement in freeing Canterlot from the Storm King, it was better if they divided the workload between them, she being the fighter, in a sense, while he focused on tracking down the loot and gathering it. Capper was okay with this and offered to point out a few things to her while they carefully moved through the ruin, as he noticed a few traps along the way, pressure plates, or in this case stones, that would activate something and do harm to intruders, so he showed her how to get around them without triggering anything. Midnight nodded as she focused on taking out the undead that were in front of them, all while making sure that both of them were hiding in the darkness of the various rooms, as the draugr didn't seem too bright and sometimes they walked right by both of them without noticing them.

From what Capper could tell there was no real reason for the miners to have been worried about this place, because so far the draugr seemed to be kind of worthless, meaning Medresi could have hired someone to aid the miners and clear the way so they could work, but her decision was going to benefit them more than it would benefit her.

Eventually they reached the end of the passage and entered an area that had a lever, one that undid one of the barriers, a pair of iron gates, that seemed to be blocking the way into what had to be the treasure chamber of the ruin, meaning once both levers were thrown they should be able to head into the final area. While they dropped down into the central chamber the pair found that Medresi had walked down into the area to see how they were doing and was now standing near the pair of iron gates while she waited for them to open the final door. With that in mind Capper and Midnight crossed over to the other pathway and he used the key that had been given to them to unlock the door, allowing them to enter the next portion of Angarvunde, which had some stone tables and benches that they walked by. The interesting thing about this section of the ruin was that it seemed to be a loop, they had to make their way deeper into the area and then use another passage to reach the other side of the iron grate that both of them passed by, which likely had a lever to unlock the door that was on the opposite side of the room in question.

Much to Capper's surprise there wasn't too much difference between this section and the first one, other than the layout, so he allowed Midnight to clear out the undead that were in the way while he tracked down all of the loot, mostly gold with a few scattered gemstones, plus a few small potions that were red, blue, and green colored, and eventually ended up in front of the final lever.

"At last! The treasure of Angarvunde is mine! It's all MINE!" Medresi stated, consumed by the fact that her target was within reach as the last door opened, causing her to rush into the final chamber like she had gone mad or something, though as the pair dropped down into the area she had been in they were able to see that she stepped on a trap.

That trap, as it turned out, was a moveable section of the floor that pushed her up into the air and into a cluster of spikes that were on the bottom of another portion of the trap, killing Medresi instantly, though as both lowered their gaze Capper found that the floor portion remained in place, revealing a staircase leading down into another area. Both of them quickly checked out what they had assumed was the treasure room and found that the only chest had a small pouch of coins and a shattered steel sword, a trap to kill greedy individuals while protecting the true treasure chamber. As such both of them carefully moved forward and discovered that there was nothing down here for them to worry about, there were no draugr waiting for them and only a short path to the final chamber, where they found a large wall with a dragon design on it that had all sorts of writing that neither of them understood. Next to the wall was a large chest that had a few more spoils that were more worth the effort, a larger sack of gold that made both of them smile, a spell tome of sorts that might be worth a fair bit, a few brass swords, and a dull green spiked shield.

"Not what I was expecting, but we can make some gold off of this." Midnight commented, where she pulled out her pouch for a moment and deposited the items inside it, as it appeared that adventurers and certain people had containers that could store a large amount of stuff, which was why La'nari had purchased one from the vendor in Riften after they talked with the thieves.

As Capper nodded and they turned to leave, however, he sensed something and glanced back, finding that Midnight kept moving towards the staircase, meaning she was unaware of the transparent lady who was floating in front of the wall, who had silver runes of sorts on her throat and arms.

...d Capper... you must... find me... the figure said, where it was hard to tell if she was speaking in an urgent manner or if this was something Capper could put off, though he had to wonder if this was due to the fact that he was in possession of the mysterious key that had been in Mercer's possession until he took the pouch it had been stored in, The key... will aid you... You must... locate me... before... He...

Capper found that whatever message he was hearing was cut off, leaving him with little to do but sigh as he caught up to Midnight as they focused on leaving the ruin, as there was much he had to think about as he and his companions looked forward to what the future held in store for them and their clan.

Comments

[Xalok]

I'm so looking forward to see how Mercer handles having lost the Key.

Well now more mysteries.

[Night_Moon60606]

so, neither of them were Dovahkiin, a pity really, but not unexpected...

[Blackdrag-rose]

11870745 Indeed. Most Skyrim stories have the Displaced become Dragonborn, or they happen to be companions to the Dragonborn. Here, I wanted to break the mold for my last foray into the land and story of Skyrim, by doing something different.

[Night_Moon60606]

11870759
well, that and you have the Thieves' Guild already done by someone else in both your other stories set in Nirn, so i think it will be interesting to see just how this will pan out...

[Blackdrag-rose]

11870831 Well, in the past stories the Thieves Guild was completed off screen by other characters, to show that the world was moving as the Displaced did their own adventures. Here it'll be a main focus of the story, once we reach that point.