"Well, well, well. What do we have to do with you little one?" the voice of Sheogorath, Daedric prince of madness was high-pitched and deeply unsettling.

"Lord?"

"You have been a bad boy Keedleshippe!" the subject of the Mad God's attention winced noticeable at the mention of the name that had been so graciously bestowed upon him. Not that he appreciated it.

"Lord Sheogorath, Keedleshippe is not my name," the translucent image of Sheogorath waved a hand impatiently, causing a nearby tree to turn bright purple and begin belching orange bubbles out of every branch. As 'Keedleshippe' watched worriedly Sheogorath began to speak again.

"Yes, yes, Keedle, I know you prefer your other name but quite frankly that is boring and you know how I hate being bored," 'Keedleshippe' nodded and shuddered, he knew that fact all too well, as when the Mad God was bored he often found ways to amuse himself… the tree was still belching bubbles, pink ones now.

"Let's face it dear Keedle, your work at Border Watch was good, but not great. Your theft of that cheese was exceptionally sloppy and the way you disposed of the sheep was no fun at all!" 'Keedleshippe' nodded warily, the last time Sheogorath was displeased with him, he had ended up with an extra eyeball for almost four weeks, which hadn't been a good experience, especially when everybody he saw; whichever eye he used, declared him a mutant monstrosity. No, not fun, whereas the Mad God on the other hand was laughing so much a nearby village suffered a plague of finely woven silk jackets. Even now people were still opening closets to have their favourite coat viciously attack them…

"And while I applaud your abilities in managing to drive that self-proclaimed baron insane, I was disappointed with your attempt to turn the mice of castle Skingrad green. Sure, you managed it but I didn't like the colour! They should have been forest green not lime green you dolt!" Sheogorath made to point directly at his protégé but Keedle had wisely stepped aside, and was glad of his reactions as the avian inhabitants of the oak directly behind him began waging a minor war on each other. Keedle and Sheogorath watched interestedly for a while, as the magpies appeared to gain the upper hand, before being brutally taken down by the starling/robin alliance, until that too was smashed by the eventually victorious swallows. Wrenching his attention on the swallows, which had begun making forays into new territory, Sheogorath returned to Keedle.

"So here's the deal Keedle. A while ago I heard of a little "task" that one of the night mother's children… blah, blah, blah. There's a house in Skingrad called Summitmist manor. Twelve people are supposed to go there to find a chest of treasure! Isn't that exciting? You find it; you keep it and can get out of the house. The house key is in the chest you see. Anyway Keedle, there's once catch, and it's really quite a major one; there's no chest, but nobody else needs to know that? Here's what I want you to do; you will be the twelfth person into that house, all you need to do is kill every single one of the others… without being caught. Somebody sees you, or you don't entertain me and SHAZHAM!!" Sheogorath whipped an arm out to his side, completely destroying the species briefly known as "The multi-coloured bubble spitting tree," the Mad God stared at the smoking crater where the tree had been and sighed.

"Oh bother. I liked that tree…" As Keedle began the long ride to Skingrad, he wondered once again why he actually served a god who was so obviously a complete lunatic…