Reticence Saga
World of Grey
Chapter 7: The Guild (I)
The road to Riften was a pretty long one...if you're traveling by foot. NegaMorph had wings and shadows to get him around, but once he was within the Rift, he decided to go on foot. He had to get into the habit of blending in among the people here and if it weren't for the fact that a recent infusion of revenite DNA had given him the ability to assume a human form, that would be nearly impossible. He adjusted his human form a bit so that it now resembled a Dark Elf, which was more to his liking.
However, there had been some...hiccups...as a result he had several bites in him and an entire pack of bear pelts. "Bloody bears," he grumbled.
Eventually, NegaMorph reached Lake Honrich and soon Riften was within sight. "Hmm...what a hive of scum and villainy...smells like one too," he muttered.
As NegaMorph was about through the front gates, one of the guards said, "Hold it, traveler. There's a visitor's tax."
"I'm sorry, what?" asked NegaMorph.
"A tax for entering the city, numbskull," said the other guard, "It's 20 septims to enter."
"Is that tax for any community projects or is it just going straight into your pockets and staying there?" asked NegaMorph flatly.
"You can always stay out here," said the first guard smugly.
"Listen, pal, I've been mangled by a dozen bears and got their pelts to prove it. If you don't let me in, there's gonna be trouble," said NegaMorph.
"If you took care of a dozen bears, then you'll be just fine out here," said the second guard, "There's nothing more dangerous than bears around here."
On cue, something scaly shot down and swallowed the guard, NegaMorph yelping and leaping into the remaining guard's arms, the two shaking as it swept back into the fog, NegaMorph sure he'd heard a deep voice say "Surprise" just before.
NegaMorph managed to recover his nerve and said, "There's only one of you know. You think you can keep me out on your own or shall I get more persuasive?" The guard made a gurgling noise, NegaMorph waving a hand in his face before jumping down and taking the key. "Have a nice day," said NegaMorph before letting himself in.
The inside of the town was...well, it was what he expected: a dump. "Urgh...I coulda gone to Windhelm but noooo…" he muttered. It was built onto the lake than by it. The constant moisture caused a lot of mildew to form on the wooden houses and by the smell of it, it would not be very healthy to go swimming in the canal.
"Hey...hey you..." said a voice at that. NegaMorph looked around before noticing a big burly guy. "I don't know you. You in Riften to lookin' for trouble?" growled the guy.
"Is that what you ask all the tourists?" asked NegaMorph coyly.
"Watch your step. Maven Black-Briar calls the shots around here. Get in her way and you'll regret it," said the thug.
"Is she the Jarl here?" asked NegaMorph.
The thug chuckled and said, "In all but name, as much as the real Jarl denies. Maven's the one to fear and I'm the one who teaches fear. Got it?"
"Oh please, I'm scary. I can demonstrate if need be," said NegaMorph in a bored tone. The thug glared before walking off. "Ok, let's see if there's anything fun to do in this town," said NegaMorph before strolling off. He soon came upon what appeared to be the marketplace with several stalls open.
NegaMorph was walking towards it when a voice with a distinct burr to it, "Running a little light in the pockets, lad?" NegaMorph turned and saw a Nord with reddish hair.
"I'm sorry, what?" asked NegaMorph.
"Your pockets, they're a little low on coin. I can tell," said the Nord.
"And how could you possibly know that?" asked NegaMorph.
"It's all about sizing up your mark, lad," said the Nord, "The way they walk, what they're wearing, it's a dead giveaway."
"My cash flow is none of your business, buster," said NegaMorph rudely.
"Oh, but that's where you're wrong, lad," said the Nord, "Wealth is my business. Maybe you'd like a taste?"
NegaMorph tilted his head and asked, "In what particular way?"
"I've got a bit of an errand to perform, but I need an extra pair of hands," said the Nord, "And in my line of work, extra hands are well-paid."
NegaMorph paused before saying carefully, "Ok...what kind of job are you talking about?"
"Simple, I'm going to cause a distraction and you're going to steal Madesi's silver ring from a strongbox under his stand," said the Nord, "Once you have it, I want you to place it in Brand-Shei's pocket without him noticing."
"Ok I...wait, are you a thief?" said NegaMorph.
"The real question is are you?" said the Nord.
NegaMorph paused before saying, "Is there any way a person called Lynch could find out?"
"We let our exploits be known, to build a reputation, but we don't mention who specifically does them so we're not always arrested on sight," said the Nord.
"Count me in," said NegaMorph happily, happy in the presumption that Matt would never find out.
"Good. Wait until I start the distraction and then show me what you're made of," said the Nord. After a few moments, the Nord, apparently named Brynjolf, was making a loud and rather obvious snake oil pitch, but it was getting everyone's attention.
NegaMorph smirked before letting himself melt into the shadows.
A few minutes later and the Dark Elf was ineffectively yelling about his innocence to the city guards. "I don't know how you did that, friend. I never even see you," said the Nord known as Brynjolf with a grin.
"I have skills," said NegaMorph smugly.
"Indeed you do. Here's the cut, like I promised...unless you are interested in earning some more," said Brynjolf.
"I'm all ears," said NegaMorph.
"Well...I represent a...certain organi-" began Brynjolf, NegaMorph saying dully "Thieves guild..."
"And I thought our reputation was all that's gone," said Brynjolf, "At least someone still remembers us."
NegaMorph paused. He didn't have the heart to say that he'd guessed.
"Well, as much as I'd like to let you in, you need to prove yourself first," said Brynjolf, "If you can find your way through the Ratway to the Ragged Flagon, I think you'll be a shoe-in."
"Seriously?" said NegaMorph.
"It's a bit of a maze run, but I think you can find your way through," said Brynjolf.
"Easy. I'll see you there," NegaMorph said smugly, pausing as a roll of thunder was heard. "Ah crud," he muttered.
The Ragged Flagon was not as easy to find as NegaMorph would have though, mainly because he was assaulted by a lot of psychos on the way there. But eventually, he managed to drag himself into the so-called pub and was hardly impressed by what he saw and it wasn't just because it was in a sewer.
"I hate you all. Where's Brynjolf? I want to kill him," he growled.
"I thought you'd be able to make it down here, lad," said Brynjolf.
"You could have told me that the Ratway was the local insane asylum!" snapped NegaMorph.
"Well, you seemed so confident," said Brynjolf pointedly, NegaMorph glaring and taking aim as Brynjolf turned before doing a little spasm.
"What the heck was that?" grumbled NegaMorph.
A voice only he could hear said at that "Thank you for using the 'combat restriction' nanites...continued attempt to kill or main timeline specifics will result in a doubling each time of the tazer shock."
"When did those get into...wait, I remember..." growled NegaMorph.
2 weeks ago
"I'm actually surprised you invited me for a drink," said NegaMorph cheerfully.
"Well, you helped Kala and I appreciate that," said Matt, working on something behind the bar.
"Eh, it wasn't much. You ought to consider giving her back her Shar powers," said NegaMorph.
"No, this is future tech. God knows what it'll do. I'm testing it on myself before I let it anywhere near her," said Matt calmly, before looking at NegaMorph. "In fact, you won't even tell anyone that it's being tested, will you?" he said pointedly.
"It's a really stupid idea, Lynch," said NegaMorph.
"So is risking Kai coming out for an encore tour," snapped Matt.
"I meant going behind Kala's back like that," said NegaMorph, "You're gonna slip up and when she finds out, she won't forgive you that easily."
"I'd prefer that over losing her to Taleth and his pet chimps," said Matt, before lifting up a drink, "Drink up."
"Your funeral," said NegaMorph before downing the drink.
"Lynch, you've got so much to answer for," growled NegaMorph.
The voice said "Threat to commander noted."
NegaMorph going "Wait...nonononono." before he was tazered again.
NegaMorph's first big job, after getting some coin out of some locals, was the honey farm out on the lake that had apparently decided to change its business arrangement with the Thieves Guild and their main proprietor. His main goal was to get the deed of the place and torch a few beehives to show they mean business.
Torching the beehives had been easy, the fires attracting most of the guards and thanks to one of his new fellow thieves, he'd known about a pipe that led inside the main house. From there it had been a breeze to bully the owner into giving up the deed. He even picked up a couple of souvenirs, such as a little bee statue that was apparently worth quite a bit.
"Nice work. Let's see here," said Brynjolf, checking the deed before his eyes narrowed.
"It's about that letter, right?" asked NegaMorph, "Whoever this Sabjorn is didn't do this all on his own. Someone was helping him."
"Yes, it might explain other things too. I'll do some of my own research but until then, you've gotten the attention of Maven Black-Briar. She apparently wants you to meet her at the Bee and Bard. I wouldn't keep her waiting if I were you," said Brynjolf.
"Ah, so I'm finally meeting the local kingpin," said NegaMorph, "I better look my best." He walked over to the Wood Elf woman who was sitting by herself and asked, "Hey, you're the Face Sculptor I've heard so much about, right?"
The Wood Elf looked up at him before saying, "I'm a face sculptor, not a miracle worker." causing NegaMorph's ego to deflate almost audibly.
"Gee, break it gently, why don't you?" he said gloomily.
"I cannot work with just any sort of flesh," said the face sculptor, "Your flesh in particularly looks...incompatible."
"Oh, I assure you my form is quite malleable," said NegaMorph, "Of course, I need to know how this hoodoo works so I know you're not just whittling away my face."
"I said it would not work. Plus I doubt that Miss Black-Briar will care what you look like, just that you get things done," said Galathil.
"This has nothing to do with Black-Briar, it's about... Ah, forget it. I'll come back when you're in an agreeable mood," said NegaMorph before walking off.
He was halfway to the secret entrance when he paused, his tek-pack sending him an urgent message.
"Warning, reality field affecting current form," said his tek-pack.
"Guess I can't spend all my time as a human," said NegaMorph as he walked out into the Ratway, "Oh well, I was getting stiff anyways." He allowed himself to ease into his more usual alien form, "Ah, much better."
The tek-pack continued "Danger...new DNA absorption has resulted in immunity failure...reality field generator recommended."
"I've got one built in, you stupid thing," snapped NegaMorph as he banged on his back.
"Error...recent battle damage has resulted in degradation of field...ETA to full generator failure: 94 hours," said the tek-pack rather scathingly.
"I hate bears," snarled NegaMorph, "Guess I'll have to back and cut that piece out of its stomach."
"Probability of locating correct ursine...0.003%," said the tek-pack, NegaMorph snapping "Who asked you?" he said before pausing, realized he'd walked out on autopilot, a drunk, luckily the only person on the street, staring at him.
"Erm...boogedy boogedy?" he said, the drunk staring at him, at his bottle before saying "I'm going cold turkey, talking blob." before tossing the bottle away.
"Good for you," said NegaMorph before shifting into his Dark Elf form, "I suppose I'll have to work on finding a way to repair this thing. Being stuck in a solid form..." NegaMorph shuddered in revulsion.
"Estimate probably encoded form?" asked the tek-pack.
"Why not?" grumbled NegaMorph.
"ETA: 91 hours," said the tek-pack before silencing itself.
"Finally...what kept you?" said the Nord woman coldly as NegaMorph stomped in in a foul mood.
"Had a little trouble with some of my equipment," grumbled NegaMorph before saying more civilly, "So, you're Maven Black-Briar. You're younger than I expected you to be."
"Is that a problem?" said Maven coldly, an unspoken dagger in her words.
"No, I was under the impression it would have taken several decades to have gotten this much influence," said NegaMorph.
"Most people aren't me," said Maven, before saying, "If you are the best the Guild can send, no wonder they are coming apart."
"I'm working on putting them back together," said NegaMorph.
"Well, here is your chance to prove it. Have you heard of Honningbrew Meadery?" said Maven calmly.
"Nope," said NegaMorph.
"Of course you haven't. They somehow managed to open up in opposition of my own brewery in a few months. I want to know how and them shut down," said Maven calmly
"So you want me to sabotage your rival," said NegaMorph, "Any particular way you want me to do it?"
"I hear they have had...rodent trouble. It would be a shame if they failed an inspection," said Maven with a cruel smirk that caused NegaMorph to shudder.
"Fine, I'll take care of it," said NegaMorph, "Where's this brewery anyways?"
"It's just south of Whiterun," said Maven.
"That's a long way to hike," said NegaMorph.
"Then you'd better get moving. I will throw in a bonus if you find out who is funding them. If you fail, don't come back," said Maven, turning to a parchment she was reading before looking back. "Are you still here?" she said, causing NegaMorph to gulp.
"Ok, I'm going," said NegaMorph, heading out of the inn. Fortunately, a trip through the shadows should shorten that trip quite a bit.
48 hours later...
"Ok...in this world...you need to physically know where the location is or..." he muttered to himself, shuddering.
"You're kidding me. You hired me out for guard duty?" snapped Mist.
"The whelps always get the rough jobs," said Farkas, "You'll eventually get to do the better stuff later."
"But...some new brewery with a rat problem?" said Mist angrily, only for Farkas to say "You won't get into the Circle if you don't do the boring as well as the exciting jobs."
"Besides, I heard Honningbrew has really good mead," said Vilkas, "Maybe if you do a good job, Sabjorn will let you have some."
Mist glared before stomping out and into the town. "Stupid idiots...just cause I'm a shield sister and not a shield brother," she muttered. She had a feeling the twins were threatened by the fact that she was getting so skilled with heavy armor and two-handed weapons. They were afraid she was gonna surpass them. And Mist was definitely planning on that.
"Fine...I'll show them I can guard with the best of-" she began before walking into someone who felt a little...softer then she expected.
"Watch where you're going, milk-drinker!" snapped Mist.
"Who are you calling- Chloe?!" asked the Dark Elf she bumped into.
"Oh, not another one. I do not know this person," snapped Mist.
"What are you doing here? And what's with the wolf armor?" asked the Dark Elf.
"It's not wolf armor, it's Nordic Carved armor," snapped Mist before pausing and saying, "Hmm, maybe I could ask Eorlund to make me some wolf armor."
"I'd say 'don't you recognize me', but my bloody reality generator's on the blink," said the elf in an annoyed tone.
"No idea what you're talking about, don't care," said Mist, "Move over, you're blocking the way."
The elf stepped aside at that, a hurt look on its face.
NegaMorph stared as Chloe walked past, his tek-pack displaying as a HUD, her ID as Silvia, though it was enough for her. "Man, that draconequus has a lot to answer for," he growled.
He probably ought to stay close to town so he could figure out what was up with Chloe, but first he had a job to do and someone to meet.
"Ok, so what's my in?" said NegaMorph, sitting in the bannered mare opposite an imperial, his contact known as Mallus Maccius.
"It's simple really," said Mallus, "Sabjorn needs to deal with his skeever problem before he can invite the captain of the guards over to taste his latest brew. And I admit, the skeevers have been thriving better than I would have expected down there and they do need to go."
"Yeah, it's like someone let them in or something," said NegaMorph pointedly.
"And it took a lot of months too," said Mallus dismissively, "But while the skeever problem will be taken care of, the mead tasting will not be going as well as Sabjorn thinks it will, thanks to a little poison in the mead."
"Whoa, whoa, poisoning the captain of the guard's a bit much, isn't it?" asked NegaMorph.
"It'll be a pretty harmless poison, only enough to make the mead tastes more awful than it already does," said Mallus, "Sabjorn thinks that Honningbrew Mead is the best, but we both know that Black-Briar is better."
"Eh, all mead tastes like cough syrup to me," said NegaMorph.
Mallus's expression fell. "Never say that in Riften. Maven'll...not be happy," he said coldly.
"Oh like I'd be stupid enough to say that," said NegaMorph, "So where are we supposed to get this poison?"
"That's the beauty of it. Sabjorn's going to give it to you to take care of the skeevers. A little in their nest and a little in the vat and it's all taken care of. Once Sabjorn's thrown in jail, I get the Honningbrew Meadery, or as it'll be soon known, Black-Briar West," said Mallus.
"That works out great for all, except Sabjorn of course, but how will I find out who helped him buy Goldenglow?" asked NegaMorph.
"After he's carted off, check his quarters," said Mallus.
"Well, this seems like an easy enough job," said NegaMorph.
"There might be one little problem," said Mallus, "I heard Sabjorn's hired someone else to guard his meadery, someone from the Companions."
"Oh please, as far as they know, I'm the exterminator," said NegaMorph confidently.
"Just watch your step," said Mallus, "I doubt you want to start up anything between the Guild and the Companions."
"They'll be none the wiser," said NegaMorph confidently.
Apparently Fate had decided to pull a mean joke on NegaMorph by making none other than Chloe the guard he had to deal with. However, despite everything, NegaMorph was a professional sneaky person and he managed to keep his cool.
"Fancy meeting you here," said NegaMorph casually.
"What are you doing here?" snapped 'Chloe'.
"Sabjorn hired me to take care of the skeever problem," said NegaMorph.
"Well I'd suppose rats listen to their own kind," said Mist icily.
"If that's the case, maybe you should be out taking care of some bears. Divines know we need them culled," said NegaMorph.
"I'm surprised they didn't drop dead after tasting you," said Mist.
Sabjorn snapped, "Enough! You are like a married couple."
"Nah, more like a pair who've worked for a terrible boss for a long while," said NegaMorph wryly.
"Can you rid me of these skeevers or not? The guard captain is coming to taste test our latest brew," snapped Sabjorn.
"No problem. They're just a bunch of overgrown rats and I've dealt with many rats before," said NegaMorph.
"Fine, here's the poison, be careful with it," said Sabjorn before glaring at 'Chloe' and saying, "And you, the Companions will hear about your conduct."
"Nobody will be getting in or out," said 'Chloe' in a bored tone.
Sabjorn glared at that, NegaMorph tuning his mind in to realize that this jerk had every intention of giving Chloe a bad report then making her a guard for pittance after she was kicked out. Suddenly, having the little asshole led away in irons wasn't so guilt-causing.
NegaMorph had little trouble getting down to where the skeevers lived, but the infestation was worse than what he had heard.
"Spiders...why is it always spiders?" he screamed, a dozen frostbite spiders the size of a small tiger scuttling after him, NegaMorph unsure if it was his imagination or not that was making them go 'wheeeeee'.
The skeevers were also a lot worse than he was led to believe. They were pretty large and had venomous fangs, which apparently weren't usual for skeevers.
He also had found out that his disguise form was pretty fragile. "EVERYTHING SUCKS!" he yelled, sending a hail of fangs at the pursuing creatures, the skeevers and spiders apparently started a truce so they could all pick on NegaMorph. If anything could convince NegaMorph to repair his reality generator, this was it. If he let himself become stuck in Dark Elf form, he'd be torn apart before the end of the day. What was worst that his translator was translating some of the squeaks to 'get the food."
But eventually, NegaMorph was able to beat them back and kill them, though they did end up taking several chunks out of him in the process. "I...want a raise," he growled, walking round to see a HUGE rat nest...oh and a guy reading a fireball.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me," moaned NegaMorph.
"You killed my babies!" screamed the mage, running at him.
"Oh no...I've had ENOUGH!" roared NegaMorph, the mage's shadow swallowing him. NegaMorph waited a bit as the mage struggled before the sound of breaking bones was heard. After a bit, the shadow spat out his mangled corpse. "Ok, let's see if this guy has anything worthwhile," said NegaMorph.
He checked what was left before pulling out a small journal and several alchemical ingredients. "Oh well," he muttered. Fortunately, that was the hardest part and there were only a few skeevers left after that. NegaMorph soon found his way to the other building with plenty of skeever poison to spare.
"Ok, simple enough, pour the poison in the vat...like so," he said carefully, emptying the entire bottle.
"Now I just have to out the door and... Wait, Chloe's out there. She probably get suspicious of me coming out the wrong door," said NegaMorph.
He opened the door a crack to see Chloe indeed on guard opposite, looking rather angry. "Well, I shouldn't make her job any worse than it is. Besides, I just cleared out all those skeevers and spiders, I'll just take the tunnel back," said NegaMorph.
He turned at that, heading back down into the tunnel...and round the corner to see a spider that was bigger than he was. "I hate this planet," he grumbled before the spider leapt at him.
Some time later, NegaMorph had emerged from the right cellar and decided he need fresh air very badly. 'Chloe' gave him a look of disgust and asked, "What are you covered in?"
"Spider drool..." said NegaMorph in a distant voice, staring straight ahead.
"There were spiders down there?" asked 'Chloe' with even greater disgust.
"Big...spiders," said NegaMorph, a slight shake to his voice becoming apparent.
"I'll let Sabjorn know you've dealt with the infestation," said 'Chloe', "You did take care of them, right?"
She yelped as NegaMorph pinned her. "I don't care! No gold is worth me being eaten AGAIN!" he snapped.
Chloe/Mist said carefully, "That's nice...please put me down."
NegaMorph put her down and said, "Sorry, I had to deal with giant rats, giant spiders, and some crazy rat wizard and I'm at the end of my rope."
Mist nodded slowly, it being sensible to agree with an elf who just lifted a fully plate-armored Nord up without effort and hadn't noticed.
"How about I buy you a drink?" suggested Mist.
"Fine, but not Honningbrew," said NegaMorph
"Fine by me. The guy's a jerk, kept hitting on me and threatening to get me fired," said Mist, walking out and therefore missing NegaMorph cackling evilly.
A little later, the captain of the guard was leading Sabjorn out by the point of his sword. "Well, that went better than I ever could have imagined," said Mallus.
With that, NegaMorph aimed his hand and sent a shadowbolt at the door, having had enough of subtlety for now. "Ok...lets see who helped you guys," he muttered.
"What was-" started Mallus before NegaMorph said, "Of course I know magic. Wouldn't be much of a thief if I didn't."
"Fine...just try not to break anything else," said Mallus as NegaMorph rifled through Sabjorn's notes.
Soon, he came upon a letter that had the same mark on it as the letter that came with the deed. It did not directly mention who had been helping Sabjorn, but apparently there was a 'Gajul-Lei' involved.
"You again...who are you?" NegaMorph muttered to himself. He wasn't sure if it was enough to satisfy Maven, but at least there was a lead to the next spot. And there was also this fancy-looking decanter that caught his eye. He doubted anyone would really miss it.
"Ok, Mallus, I'm done here. Have fun making booze," he said cheerfully.
"If you need anything fenced, you come and see me," said Mallus.
"No problem," said NegaMorph, before sighing.
He opened the door to see Mist walking down the road back towards Whiterun, apparently watching her previous employer being dragged away. "Well, I suppose I could keep an eye on her." he said to himself.
Ok, this chapter ended up being a lot shorter than I had expected it to be. Admittedly, we skimmed over much of the first few quests of the Thieves Guild line, but that won't always be the case. The Guild quests may not get as much of the limelight as the other quests, but they will be featured. They'll probably be more sporadic than the rest. But when they do pop up, they will be worth reading.
We're gonna have another focus shift in the next chapter and it's gonna have a major impact. Keep an eye out for it and please review.