Everyone met the next morning. Except it wasn't quite everyone.
"Alright then. Where's our old friend." Yew said
"Oden? I am not certain. I haven't seen him since we split up." Greta said.
"Me neither." Sophia echeod. Everyone else shook their heads.
"Alright then. I suppose we will have to search for him." Yew said.
"How will we do that?" Sophia asked.
"My wolf here knows his scent. Shouldn't take us long to find him. Half a day, I'd wager." Yew said.
"I'll take that wager." Sophia said.
"Done. 20 gold a piece." Yew said.
"It's a wager." Sophia said.
"We should get going as soon as possible." Greta said.
"Of course. But let's finish breaking our fast first. Odens a big boy. He can last a little while longer. Wherever he is." Yew said.
"I...I suppose." Greta said.
"It'll be fine. If Oden isn't in danger, a delay won't hurt. If he is we shall need our strength." Yew said.
"Yew isn't wrong." Uthgerd said.
They finished breakfast and shortly thereafter the party headed out, following Yew's wolf. They zigzagged through the city to the waterfront, then passed below it unto the underbelly of the city.
"I imagine this is where the trail runs cold." Yew said, patting his wolf on the head. It tensed slightly, enough to know he didn't like it, and Yew stopped immediately. It seemed apparent he had boundaries to learn.
"Undercities are a terrible place even in decent cities. In a place like Riften..." Uthgerd said.
"Filled of Skeevers, brutes, the plagued and Divines know what else." Sophia said.
"We can't abandon Oden." Greta said taking out her mace.
"She's not wrong." Sophia said taking out her sword.
Uthgerd chose her shorter sword and her shield.
"Alright then. What are we waiting for? I don't suppose you need o do any of that hocus pocus before we go in?" Uthgerd said.
"Oh no. I'm set." Yew said. He was holding his staff of sparks. That and his spells and cantrips should be all he required. Sophia's shadow, as usual, didn't say much of anything. He'd be bringing up the rear, as usual, until the fighting started.
The undercity of Riften wasn't a pleasent place. It stunk of corpses and filth and rot. It was darker then Yew would have wished but brighter then he'd dare hope.
"Why would Oden come to such a place." Greta said.
"Undercities are a good place for cutthroats to come. There are gambling dens in most of them. Black markets. If your clever enough someone might well make a good sum here. Maybe not their fortune, but a start." Sophia said.
"He might not have come here willingly. Keep on guard." Uthgerd said.
Yew thought that Greta was already on guard enough. But Uthgerd didn't seem to have quite the same grasp of the psyche as he did.
Yew was the first to sense the skeevers. He was fairly sure they were all infected and starved, half-mad with disease and pain. Unfortunately, Yew was not going to be able to give them anything but a quick death.
"Skeevers." Yew called and it was barely out of his mouth before the skeevers reached them. They pounced. Sophia was able to slice one in midair, bisecting the creature and letting it fall out of the air behind her.
Gunthar buried his axe in one of their little skulls, and Yew was able to put a thorn through one's eye. Greta wasn't so lucky though. She missed a swing with her mace and ended up with a rat on top of her. And then another. They were swarming, clawing and biting.
Gunthar and Yew were the quickest to respond. Yew put two thorns in thier bodies, it killed one but the other kept fighting. Gunthar ended it with a surprisingly surgical ax blow.
"Greta!" Yew called out and went to look at his friend. She was covered in cuts and bites. She looked pale and was unresponsive.
"Greta!" Yew said and went fumbling for his potions. He found one and forcced it down her mouth. Then he compressed her chest. She jumped back to life.
"Skeevers! By Kynreath I hate them." Greta said.
"Praise the gods you're alright. You gave me quite a scare." Yew said.
"Everyone ready to continue on? Rest of thr skeevers are down." Sophia said, pulling her blade from the corpse of one.
"Give them a moment by the eight." Uthgerd said, She had set her shield away and was cleaning off her blade.
"Will do. But this place is dangerous. We shouldn't spend too much time lingering." Sophia said.
"You feeling ok?" Yew asked a few moments later.
"Y-yes. I'm feeling a bit better." Greta said. Yew helped her up. She still looked a bit weak, but she could hold her mace well enough and they didn't have the luxury of time.
They continued forward, this time though Greta was flanked by Uthgerd and Sophia, with Gunther being behind her and Yew as the vanguard.
"Sure you should be up front? I'm not complaining about the view, but your pretty frail and not one for much close combat." Sophia said.
"Hopefully we aren't taken so off guard that it will have to be close combat. I intend to kill any enemy before they get close." Yew said.
"Fair enough." Sophia said.
The party continued their exploration of the Undercity carefully. It wasn't too long before they started hearing voices.
"So uh...what's the plan boss?" A male voice said.
"Just ambush anybody that comes through here." Another male voice responded.
"Really? But not a lot of people come through here. Besides homeless and outlaws like us..." The other voice responded.
"Very well. Rough them up and take anything of value."
"I mean alright. Seems like quite a lot of risk and not a lot of reward."
Yew proceeded to turn the corner, leaning on his staff of sparks.
"How are you boys doing? You getting along well?" Yew said to two nords. One was slighter and carrying a mace, the other was bigger and carrying an ax.
"What in the name of oblivion? Get him." Said the smaller one.
"He looks like a sorcerer or magic-user of some kind. Seems pretty dangerous." The big one said.
"You're an intelligent guy. You should listen to your friend. I am a magic user and a fairly dangerous one at that." Yew said.
"So what? He's alone. We can take him-" The smaller one couldn't conclude his sentence. It was hard to do that when a thorn was sticking out of your jugular.
"Sorry about that. It's just one can't take chances with such volatile men." Yew said.
"Suppose not, only thing is he was my friend so..." The bigger man said hefting his ax.
"Well, I'm not without friends myself. So before you do anything hasty..." Yew said and his companions rounded the corner. Including his wolf, who was snarling. It was funny how the wolf seemed to back off when Yew wanted him to, and just then acted aggressively when it served his interests. No doubt that was apart of his connection to the wolf.
"I see. You can pass through if you want. Truth be told, I was only going to kill you reluctantly. He had been treating me bad for a while. Not like his old self anymore. Think the war got to him. Used to be a simple cutpurse, which was good enough work in fat times. Now times is lean. Everyone has to become tough or die. Everywhere but Riften. Thought it would be the right place for him. Turns out it was harder than he thought." The big guy said.
"Long as you don't try anything, there doesn't need to be any more bloodshed." Yew said.
"Oh they'll certainly be more bloodshed. Just doesn't have to be with you." Sophia said cheerfully.
The party exited with their guards firmly up. To his credit, the big guy sat in the corner fiddling with his axe.
However, Yew's company was back on extermination duty fairly quickly. The place was crawling with Skeevers. Thankfully it was the party that got the jump on them. Yew sending thorns and acid and poison into their corrupted bodies, while Sophia quickly ended their infected misery with a few slashes of her sword.
"Poor creatures. This land...it's under distress from more then just war." Yew said.
"Yes. There have been more diseases lately. Among wildlife and people." Greta said.
"Another thing to look into." Yew said to himself.
"Don't have to solve all the problems in the world druid." Sophia said.
"Maybe not. But this falls under my purview." Yew said.
Footsteps echoed along with the stone. Yew and his party tensed up and turned to face the new threat.
"Well then, it took you long enough." A voice said. It was Oden, hand resting on the hilt of his sword, partially obscured by shadow.
"Old man. You really got us to go out of our way. You owe us big for this." Sophia said.
"Apologies. Meant to come back sooner. However, the accommodations at the Ragged Flagon are better then one might expect. The company is a bit more what I'm used to as well." Oden said.
"Ragged Flagon?" Yew asked.
"Cmon. Meet my new friends." Oden said.
And the company followed Oden deeper into the Ratways. They made it into the Ragged Flagon without much incident.
There was a woman there with dark hair who got up and whistled as soon as they stepped into the chamber.
"Be on ease, Sapphire. These are my companions." Oden said.
""Really? Most of them don't look much like outlaws." The woman said.
"Well let's just say whether something is illegal or not doesn't factor much into my morality. It's true though that I'm not a cutpurse or a pickpocket." Yew said.
"You making a jest of us?" Sapphire said.
"Wouldn't dream of it." Yew said.
"Girls, theres no need to fight. We can all get rich through cooperation." Oden said.
"Oden, what is this place?" Uthgerd asked.
"The Imperial city." Sapphire snarked.
"It's the headquarters of the theives guild." Oden said.
"Why would you bring us here?" Uthgerd said.
"Stay calm Uthgerd. But yes...please explain." Yew said.
"Well, I've gotten into some negotiations with them. I believe they can help us." Oden said.
"I pray so. Because I don't expect things from people if I can't give them something in return."Said a male voice.
"Brynjolf. Where is Frey?" Oden said.
"Guild Business, your friends can talk with me. Who speaks for the group?" The nord man known as Brynjolf said.
"It would be fair to say that I speak for the party." Yew said.
"Good. You, Oden and one other can follow me, the rest can stay here." Brynjolf said.
"I'll go. Can't wait to see this." Sophia said.
"No. I'll go. You should stay here." Uthgerd said. She was stonefaced. Yew realized that Uthgerd still didn't trust Sophia.
"Fine. We'll play it your way." Sophia said, she looked faintly amused if anything. Uthgerd kept a neutral expression.
"Alright then. Lead the way." Yew said.
Yew would have to play this carefully. After all if he expected to walk out of this city alive he needed to maintain the bonds of his companions and not piss off any of the major players.
Yew went past the Ragged Flagon, and into a small chamber. There was a table and Bryjanolf took a seat. Yew took the other and Uthgerd pulled up a third.
"Well then. I heard you're looking for some people." Bryjanolf said.
"Brigands. Ones that have done myself and my party some harm. I'd like to give them nature's justice." Yew said.
"Nature doesn't have any such thing. It's uncaring." Bryjanolf said.
"It may appear so. However, I assure you that while things aren't always fair, everyone faces up to Nature's justice eventually. It's just a matter of when and what it looks like." Yew said.
"Very well, then. Your companion has given me their descriptions. However I'd be careful about entering into any conflict with them. They don't seem to be easy to kill." Bryjanolf said.
"They aren't. we've fought them before. We weren't ready then. We are now." Yew said.
"I admire your bravado. However, I was informed you met with Blackbriar yesterday. How did that go?" Bryjanolf asked..
"Well. We made certain agreements. If we all abide by them, we can have a fruitful exchange." Yew said.
"How's that?" Brjyanolf said.
Yew went over Bryanjolf with his plan. Yew could feel Uthgerds gaze on him. It was quite intimidating. If things were his way, he'd have Sophia sit in. She'd probably have understood.
Not that he could blame Uthgerd. If he wasn't aware of what his strategy was, and shared her same moral compunctions, he'd be pissed too.
"Well then, if all goes as plan, I think that will work out best for everyone." Brynjolf said.
"Excellent. Then it seems we have come to an accord." Yew said.
"Yes. But if you doublecross us...it won't be me you'll have to deal with, you understand?" Brynjolf said.
"I understand perfectly." Yew said.
"Good. Then you'll get along well in Riften." Brynjolf said.
"I hope you know what your doing." Uthgerd muttered as they left the inner sanctum.
"I do. You just have to trust me." Yew muttered back.
Once they were back in the Ragged Flagon, Brynjolf called everyone to attention.
"The newcomers may leave. However you must keep the secrecy of this place, or else you'll find that thieves do have laws of their own." Brynjolf said.
"We understand completely." Yew said.
"Very well then. Til next we meet." Brynjolf said.
With that Yew's company turned their back to the Theives guild and headed back to the surface.