//------------------------------//
// Guild: Work in Whiterun 
// Story: Skyrim: Band of Thieves 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

Capper found that it was about ten in the morning when they arrived in the area outside Whiterun, where they allowed the carriage to be taken by the stable worker that was tending to the horses, something that was followed by them heading into the city itself so they could do what they set out to do when they left Riften earlier. As they entered the city Aela made her way to the mead hall of the Companions, though this time around Azure followed her, as he knew they would be in the city for some time and that it might be worth seeing what the group of warriors wanted from new recruits. As the pair departed, however, Capper found that two kobolds wanted to come out and join them, who happened to be the first warrior kobold, who picked the name Tuk Ur and wore iron armor that fit his new form, while the other was the first mage, Mah Oh, who had taken one of the more pristine mage robes to replace her torn ones. It was kind of interesting to have Tri Ki, Tuk Ur, and Mah Oh together again, since they were the first three Capper had created, though the warrior kobold lifted a greatsword, sized to fit his body's new size, onto his shoulder as he followed Azure, no doubt to learn more from the Companions, while Mah Oh stayed near Rarity, as if she could learn from her.

Such a thing reminded Capper to find a good spot for the portal back to his realm, where he discovered some houses near the edge of the wall that protected Whiterun, to the right of the main entrance after passing by the house no one owned, and set the portal on the backside of the furthest house, linking Whiterun to the Opulent Lands.

"You're getting better at using your new powers." La'nari commented, as it was interesting to see Capper wield his powers to this degree, something that was definitely getting better as the days went by, while at the same time she had to wonder if he would end up like all of the other Princes, not caring about mortals and seeing them as toys.

"They're like any skill, that the more you use them the greater your ability to use them becomes." Capper replied, where he made sure that the portal worked by having Tri Ki use it to head back into his realm and then come back out a few seconds later, meaning they could go from Riften to Whiterun whenever they wanted, which would be handy in the future, "Now then, let's go find our contact and get this show on the road."

Rarity and Midnight, as he expected, were more interested in checking out the city and seeing if there were any odd jobs for them to do, in addition to whatever jobs Capper was given, while La'nari decided to check out the shops, just in case they had some goods that might be worth stealing for the Guild. Capper knew that she was thinking about the jobs that Vex and Delvin had to offer, which he had decided to hold off on for the time being, because those involved breaking into places to steal stuff, or placing something, writing entries in the journals of the shops, or just picking someone's pockets. He and Tri Ki headed back to The Bannered Mare, since that was where he found Mallus previously, and he found that there were a few patrons inside, sitting at the benches and tables, no doubt to get some rest before facing whatever the rest of the day had to throw at them. He spotted Mallus hanging out in the cooking area of the tavern, where no one else was right now, meaning they could have a short discussion about the job before he and his kobold companion headed back to the meadery to do whatever needed to be done to fulfill Maven's demands.

Since it appeared that no one was focusing on them Capper walked over to the area that Mallus was sitting in and he found that the figure looked up as he stopped by his table, where he took a seat across from his contact and offered him a smile as Tri Ki kept an eye on the eating area.

"Let's get down to business, Mallus. Maven said that you had details on Sabjorn and our job." Capper said, keeping his voice low so only they could hear what he was saying right now, all while he kept his own senses on alert since he didn't want the people of the city to realize that they had plans for the meadery.

"Yes, he's about to hold a tasting for Whiterun's Captain of the Guard, an imperial called Caius." Mallus replied, which told Capper that Sabjorn must have been hard at work preparing for this day, even though now it was going to end in disaster for him, as he could see what the plan was before someone even told him everything he needed to know, "Now, the plan is to poison the mead and then have the Captain taste the poisoned drink... not enough to actually harm him, but it will be bad enough to make him deal with Sabjorn... and the beauty of the plan is that he'll be giving you the poison. I know that you are new to Whiterun, but it is well known to everyone in the city that the meadery has quite the pest problem, skeevers to be exact, and I know for a fact that he's been looking for someone to deal with the pests... so you are going to wander into the building, offer him a helping hand, and then use the poison he'll give you to poison the mead."

"I see. Am I correct in assuming that the two buildings are connected?" Capper asked, because from the outside the meadery and the building that stored the vats didn't seem linked, so he had to assume there was an underground passage to link the two together, where Mallus nodded his head, confirming that there was such a path, "Well then, I had better get started on the job, before Sabjorn hires someone else to deal with the pests."

As Mallus turned his head, indicating that he was leaving him to his business, Capper and Tri Ki headed outside and started to make their way towards the main gates of the city, though at the same time he found that Azure and Tuk Ur were already passing through the gates, meaning the Companions might have accepted them into their ranks. Sure enough he found that the pair headed to the right of the fork in the road that would bring them to the meadery, which seemed to confirm what had happened while he was chatting with Mallus, even if it was for a few minutes, causing him to assume that the higher ups in the Companions had put him to work as soon as he and the warrior kobold joined the group. While Azure headed off into the plains, maybe tracking down some bandits to kill, Capper and Tri Ki made their way over to the structure that was their destination, though he was amazed that people weren't even focusing on the kobolds, as even the guards seemed unfazed by their existence. Part of him had to blame the return of the dragons, meaning the people might not be surprised by the existence of the smaller lizards, and it was possible that some thought the kobolds were just a different type of argonian, as the khajiits had all sorts of different forms they could take.

In the end he decided to focus on the job as he and Tri Ki walked up to the meadery, finding a skeever running off into the distance, almost like it was trying to survive or something, and when they entered the building Capper found out why, as he found an older male nord standing over a dead skeever, with a bloody sword on the edge of the bar.

"It seems that we came for some mead at the wrong time. Vermin problem?" Capper asked, making it seem like he and Tri Ki were just travelers, especially since it didn't look like the figure knew that they were members of the Thieves Guild, rather it looked like Sabjorn believed that they might be simple travelers or even adventurers.

"Very funny... this is trouble I don't need, not with the tasting happening this afternoon." Sabjorn stated, though he sighed for a moment as he thought about what this might mean for him, as he didn't like the skeevers and wasn't about to head into the basement that they were coming from, since he was sure there was more down below the meadery.

"Maybe we can be of assistance? We've cleared out skeever dens before, but we don't work for free... if you pay us half the fee now we'll do whatever you request to deal with them." Capper said, as that was a steal, because he suspected that they wouldn't be given the full price anyway, Sabjorn didn't seem like the type to play fair, especially since he felt that there might be some history between him and Mallus, so cheap would be better than full labor.

"Fine. My only demand is that the den be taken out permanently... to that end I bought some poison, but it seems that my good for nothing assistant has vanished on me." Sabjorn replied, where he stepped behind the bar for a moment and pulled out a large vial that contained a fair amount of poison, more than enough to poison the nest and the mead based on what Capper was seeing, before the man seemed to consider something as he placed a key next to the vial, followed by a bag of gold, "That will get you into the basement, where you can deal with the vermin and their foul nest... the tunnel will no doubt take you into the area that the vats are in, so if you can bring a barrel of my Honningbrew Reserve back with you, which is in the middle vat on the right side, I'll pay you more... provided you get here before the Captain of the Guard does."

Capper nodded, not because he wanted the gold, because he was sure Sabjorn was lying and was saying things to get them to perform better than common thugs, rather it was due to the fact that this would allow them to complete Maven's job and further the power of the Guild in another city, but the half payment was quite nice. With the vial of poison in hand, and both the gold and the key in their possession, he and Tri Ki followed Sabjorn through a door and he pointed at another door that was at the bottom of a short set of stairs, before he returned to the bar to deal with the skeever he had killed before their arrival. After that he unlocked the door so he and his companion could get to work, finding that it was a storage area that the door had brought them to, but what was the most important fact was the hole in the wall that headed deeper underground, and the skeevers coming from it. There were two skeevers, which almost seemed stronger than normal skeevers since they were slightly larger and their coats seemed to be a darker shade than those he had seen so far, though he did let Tri Ki stab both of them with her ebony dagger, which put an end to their enemies before they became a problem.

Such a thing also revealed that Capper's earlier thoughts had been accurate, all creatures that died near him produced their own golden soul gem and the skeevers were no exception, allowing him to claim two more golden soul gems before he and the kobold headed down the tunnel, setting the bear traps aside to make things easier for them.

Not a few moments later they reached a small area that had four more skeevers just wandering around, to which Capper also got in on the action as he used one of his blades to cut through two of them, leaving the other two to Tri Ki, and, sure enough, his targets dissolved into a pile of gold and gems as they were slain. It was the side effect of his blades, that much he was sure of, which told Capper that he might want to invest in a weapon that didn't do this, even though this did cause a pair of kobolds with sacks to step out of his realm to collect the newly created treasure. It was clear that Ithelia knew that this was likely going to happen until he was fully in control of his powers, or maybe he knew he'd be bothered by leaving a pile of wealth behind and was tasking some of the kobolds to be 'collectors', collecting the treasure he created while he just focused on his chosen tasks. Capper resolved to talk to Ithelia about this when he returned to the Opulent Lands for a time, since it seemed like a worthwhile to talk about so they reached an understanding, but for the time being he focused on the path in front of him as he and Tri Ki found another decent sized area to pass through, this one filled with five spiders.

The spiders weren't hard to deal with, as none of them heard the pair coming and reacted only when the first two fell to the pair, and even then Capper wasted no time in cutting down those that were left, allowing him to grab all of their golden soul gems before pressing onward once more, leaving the Collectors to gather the piles of treasure. The rest of the path was far more simple than everything else the pair had experienced so far, it was just taking care of a few bear traps and a spike ball trap, even though this told him that there was someone else down here, because this deep meant someone didn't want to be discovered. After that they found what appeared to be the final portion of the underground area, which had a number of the darker skeevers and, more importantly, a shirtless man who seemed to be working at an alchemy table that was right next to the nest that happened to be their target. He had no idea who the man was and he honestly didn't care, because he seemed to be controlling the skeevers, so he left them to Tri Ki, who tossed a pebble at each skeever and then cut them down when they were far away from the others, meaning they wouldn't alert the crowd, and she didn't stop until each and every skeever was dead.

With that in mind Capper drew his blades and cut down the man that was standing over the alchemy table, raining treasure on the table and ground, where he let the Collectors pick up the treasure before he applied part of the poison to the nest, just as Sabjorn asked, and then he looted the nearby chest, which just had some gold inside it.

"Such a strange man... building an army of skeevers, in the underground area below a meadery." Capper commented, as it seemed odd and made him wonder if Mallus even knew that this guy had been down here, because if his contact knew this guy was down here it seemed stupid of him not to mention it, since that could have changed how he approached taking on this entire job.

"Yeah... wonder what drove him to do such an insane thing?" Tri Ki remarked, as she was sure that the journal the man had might explain why he was like this, because most of the people in Skyrim, from what she remembered, kept some sort of journal that detailed important events in their lives, so she suspected the insane mage's would do the same.

Capper decided not to worry about it for the time being as he headed through the other tunnel and found that it ended up in another basement, a new one that appeared to be the basement of the area that the vats were in, which was great since this meant the job was almost over. With that in mind he found the door that would bring them into the vat area and found that there were six vats in the process of making more beer, and there were barrels of the stuff, properly sealed to prevent any of it from leaking out, plus there were bottles stored in a few crates. It was clear that Sabjorn was preparing to make a big move since Maven might be lacking the mead for the coming month, which was part of the reason why she likely wanted Sabjorn out of the picture so Mallus could supply her with the missing items she needed. With that in mind he pulled out one of the bottles and opened it, taking a short swing of the Honningbrew Mead, finding that it had a sweet honey flavor to it, to which he looked at the vat Sabjorn wanted him to extract a barrel of, which he called Honningbrew Reserve, causing him to grab a nearby mug and fill it.

He wasn't much of a drinker, in fact he stayed away from the stuff back before he and the others came to this world, but he had to admit that the Reserve was actually quite delicious, better than the original while having a tangy flavor, something he could see people getting hooked on, which caused him to sigh.

"You know, I can see why Maven's so worried about this place... this mead is actually quite good. It would be a shame if it just went to waste." Capper commented, where he grabbed one of the smaller empty barrels and hooked it up to the vat with the Reserve, filling it to the brim with the drink, and once that was done he pulled out the vial and dumped the rest of the poison into the small barrel, leaving the vat pristine, causing him to grin for a moment, "I wasn't planning on making a place like this in the Opulent Lands, but a meadery sounds interesting."

Tri Ki found that her Prince opened a temporary gate into the Opulent Lands, where some of the other kobolds came out for a time and Capper directed them to take the mead, leaving all of the equipment behind since they would soon be Maven's, so it wasn't long before the bottles were collected and all of the vats were emptied. Sure, it took a few minutes for them to move all of it into their realm and into the building that Capper picked out for a temporary storage area, but he wanted all of them to know that this wasn't for drinking, not until they had their own brewery up and running anyway. Once he was sure the area was cleared, and that Mallus wouldn't suspect anything, he picked up the barrel with the contaminated Reserve and exited the area that the vats were in, where he found that it was now in the afternoon and there was a small carriage outside the meadery. Such a thing told him that the Captain of the Guard was here, he had arrived faster than Capper had thought he would, meaning he must have finished up his work in Whiterun ahead of schedule and figured he could pop in ahead of his appointment with Sabjorn, causing Capper to sigh as he and Tri Ki stepped into the meadery.

Sure enough they found a male imperial with impressive guard armor, Whiterun's but far more impressive with shoulder pads and other distinguishing pieces, looking at one of the walls, while Sabjorn was on the other side of the bar, the dead skeever was gone, and Mallus was standing off to the right, allowing Capper to silently set the small barrel on the edge of the bar, directly where Sabjorn was pointing.

"The job is done, as you requested." Capper quietly said, lowering his voice so only Sabjorn could hear him, while lowering his head a little so they could speak without the Captain overhearing them, though at the same time he wasn't expecting to be paid for this job, not until he got back to Riften.

"Good, now I won't have to worry about the skeevers... and don't worry about your pay, I'll give you the rest of it once we're done with the tasting." Sabjorn stated, keeping his voice low at the same time, since he didn't want Caius to listen in on what they were talking about, where Capper nodded his head a little as he and Tri Ki sat at two of the seats, showing Sabjorn that he was free to complete his tasting, just with a few more watchers than before.

Sabjorn walked down to the edge of the bar and told Caius that they were ready for the tasting to begin, where the Captain of the Guard told the man that it was about time, like he wasn't used to having to wait for others to get things ready, while he turned towards the bar. Fortunately Sabjorn had a silver cup ready for him and handed it over without delay, where they watched as Caius took it as the man told him about the Reserve, describing it as a fine wine or something, while the Captain told him that it was mead and didn't need such a description. As he poured himself some of the contaminated mead Capper knew that the time had come at last, and, sure enough, when he drank it he nearly gagged, causing some alarm in Sabjorn, where it wasn't long before the man advanced on Sabjorn, demanding an answer on why it tasted like it did. When the man was unable to respond, since he didn't know, Caius grabbed his arms and used one hand to make sure both wrists were restrained, before telling Mallus that he was in charge until everything was sorted out in the prison, and it wasn't long before he and Sabjorn left for the city.

Mallus, for the most part, was going to leave for a time so he could get some supplies, though he let Capper know that he was going to be a fence for the Guild after this and that this would be another Black-Briar Meadery in due time, and once he handed over another key, to Sabjorn's room, he departed to order the supplies he needed.

"Kind of stupid if you ask me, leaving a thief inside your residence without making sure they leave with what they need first." Capper commented, though he had to smile as he and Tri Ki headed into the area outside the first basement area they had passed through previously, where he let the other kobolds he called on earlier come out and they raided the barrels, taking the mead bottles and transporting them to his realm.

Once that was done he headed up to the second floor and found his way to the only bedroom that was up there, which he was able to unlock with the key Mallus had given him, though there didn't seem to be anything of note in the main room, as he found another locked door. On the other side he found some silver bars, a few pouches of gold, a small strongbox that had another container of gold inside it, and something that looked like a decanter, filled with Honningbrew Mead, which had to be another item he could sell to Delvin, like the bee statue that was still in his possession. After that he checked the rest of Sabjorn's bedroom, where he found that the dresser was locked and unlocked it with the key, where he discovered a note that had the same icon as what he found on the Goldenglow bill of sale, meaning someone wanted to drive weaken the Guild by attacking Maven, who would blame them in turn. The note even spoke about how the silent partner would keep all of Maven's assets and cronies away from this place, something they clearly failed to do since Capper had done this without anyone trying to stop him, but he also knew that this would annoy their patron when they got back to Riften and handed her the information.

As he and Tri Ki departed from the meadery their heads were held high, as they had succeeded in their mission and did the job with flying colors, something even Maven would have to admit when she was told the job was done, and as they headed back to the city Capper could only wonder how Azure and his kobold companion were doing with their task.





After splitting up from the group Azure and Tuk Ur headed into Jorrvaskr with Aela, where they found two individuals in the middle of a brawl, a common thing since this was a mead hall and that meant some of the Companions might be drunk, but since it was early in the day he figured they had a disagreement before their arrival. The male dark elf was putting up a good fight, since it was only fists, but the female nord warrior had overpowered him and knocked him to the ground, winning the battle and the argument at the same time, while the rest of the superior warriors nodded before going about their routines, all while one kept an eye on them. He suspected that the older nord might be interested in Aela, who seemed to be roughly around his age, maybe younger than him, but for the time being he focused on following her down into the living quarters of Jorrvaskr, which was where all the beds were located. From what Azure could tell there was nothing impressive down in the bedroom area, though he did pass by a stand that looked like it had the fragments of a weapon on it, Wuuthrad according to what Aela told him, the weapon of Ysgramor, causing him to nod as he filed the information away for later.

The Harbinger, the leader of the group, was an old nord warrior by the name of Kodlak Whitemane, while the younger nord sitting across from him seemed to be Farkas' sibling, a twin brother, but he found himself respecting the man instantly, as he seemed gentle and understanding, seeing things that no one else saw. Vilkas, the younger warrior, was of the impression that he was a nobody and that they shouldn't waste time on him or his kobold companion, and Azure felt that his comment was fair since next to no one really knew about him and his friends, but Kodlak was unswayed. He saw something inside the pair, a fire that burned inside Azure and Tuk Ur, and he asked them how they fared in battle, causing Azure to be truthful with the old man, since lying to him felt like the wrong thing to do, and he confessed that they had much to learn. It was the truth since he was still adapting to his new form, just like Tuk Ur was adjusting to his smaller form, but that only caused the old man to nod his head, indicating that he believed him and that he was willing to admit them into the Companions, they just had to train with Vilkas a little.

By that he meant head outside and swing their weapons at Vilkas, who just blocked with a shield as the pair attacked him for a few seconds, but he, ultimately, wasn't impressed and simply had them take his one-handed sword to Eorlund to have it sharpened, who, in turn, asked them to bring Aela a shield, who had remained in the living area to speak with the older nord who had been watching her previously.

"Don't worry about the errands... it's customary to send newcomers on a short errand run before their first job." Aela said, as she could tell that Azure was already regretting coming to the Companions if this was what life was like for them, but the knowledge that this was commonplace, and that all newcomers went through this, seemed to appease him for the time being.

Sure enough Azure and Tuk Ur were given a task a few moments later, after Farkas showed them to the area that the lower ranked members of the Companions slept in, as the rooms near Kodlak's area were for the members of the 'Circle', those who served as the upper echelon of the group, and the task was to wipe out some nearby bandits.

"Bandits? Well then, consider them wiped out already." Azure remarked, where he found that the camp in question was in the area of Fort Greymoor, to the north of it, a small area known as Redoran's Retreat, meaning he and Tuk Ur would be able to complete this task in a short period of time and be back to pick up a new task within a few hours.

As they left Jorrvaskr, however, Tuk Ur remarked that they were ahead of his Prince, as Capper and Tri Ki were departing from The Bannered Mare while Azure was heading through the main gate, meaning that by the time they reached the outer area of the city his companion was just leaving the city. Following that the pair headed back to where Fort Greymoor was located and then, when they reached the crossroads near it, headed to the north for a moment and crossed over the bridge that was along the way, all while noting that there were a some wild wolves in the area. Of course the animals seemed to not care about the pair, allowing them to head off to the left as Azure spotted the door that would allow them to enter the cave the bandits were hiding in and discovered that there were no guards outside. With that in mind they were able to head into the cave and discovered that there weren't many bandits either, rather there was a single dog, an archer, a warrior, and the orcish armor wearing individual that was the chief, since the latter always wore the best armor out of everyone.

Azure was actually disappointed in the bandits that they fought, as he and Tuk Ur slashed through the archer and dog with ease, the warrior seemed partly drunk and kept missing as they cut him down, and the chief barely heard them coming as Tuk Ur attacked her from behind, all so Azure could remove her head.

"I guess this really was a test, to be sure we were ready to join the Companions." Tuk Ur commented, though at the same time he looted the large chest that was nearby, which contained a fair amount of gold, a few bars of metal that might be the material to make orcish gear, and a few weapons that could be shared with the kobolds back home.

"And we passed with flying colors." Azure said, because these bandits were nothing, even the chief seemed like she had no real skills of her own, so if this was a test, like his kobold companion was suggesting it was, he suspected they had passed and would be given a more difficult job upon their return to Jorrvaskr.

Sure enough Farkas greeted them upon their return to the mead hall and listened as they reported their success, which was followed by him handing over a bag of three hundred gold, their share of the payment, before Aela tasked them to clear out a beast that had invaded a house near Riften, causing Azure to nod as he and Tuk Ur rejoined the others, as he was eager to continue his work as he wondered what the future might hold for them.