Into Skyrim, Elder Scrolls 8 Nirn's Beta-Chapter 124: Informational Brilliance

Sorex had been collecting a surprisingly large amount of information. I shuffled through the information with some interest. Sorex smirked, "You know it is impressive."

I nodded, "Impressive yes, but some of it is hard to sell. You managed to acquire both the raid plans and defense line of Whiterun."

Sorex gave a light nod, "I suspect both are fake. I didn't sell either due to the possibility."

It was a good guess, but not entirely true. The Defense measures were real, but siege plans were fake. "The siege plans are fake, do you remember the seller?"

Sorex nodded, "A drunk sailor, here is where it starts to get weird. They were a khajiit, sold the information for 10 gold, and only drank two ales. I confirmed he got on a boat and sailed toward west."

I rubbed my chin in some thought, "An unaffiliated khajiit, willing to sell information like that for 10 gold, and acting drunk after two drinks."

Sorex nodded, "The information about the khajiit seems better."

"No name?" I already knew the answer, but asked anyway.

Sorex shook his head, "Never gave it, not once to anyone while in the city."

"You write a description?"

Sorex nodded, "Minette even drew a portrait. Check it out."

He passed a few pages and I paused, "She drew this? This is impressive?"

Sorex smirked again, "Right? I was thinking of paying her an allowance just to draw some stuff."

It wasn't a bad idea, I made a mental note to test her skills later. "You confirmed the assassinations?"

Sorex paused and looked through the papers, "Ah, Yeah, all the murders I confirmed. I tracked all the additional information you listed as well."

I took the paper and started to flip through them. "No attempt on Lurbuk's life?"

Sorex nodded, "No, instead a man named Murphy was killed within dragon's bridge. He was in prison for some nasty crimes. I suspect he was killed by his victims brother, a man named Servi, the guy disappeared though so after."

I nodded, "Hern and Hert were killed?"

Sorex nodded, "They were exposed as vampires. From what I can tell the employer for the contract is a man named Agmaer. Recently moved from Falkreath to the Riften area. Stayed in the bee and barb for 3 days before heading toward Fort Dawnguard."

"The Half-Moon Mill is on sale? How much is it?" The price wasn't listed so I looked at Sorex with a raised eyebrow.

Sorex took out a separate document. "6000 gold exactly, rather cheap to be honest. I think the reason is obvious though. Two vampires owners, rather distant from Falkreath, necromancers documented in the area. I did the separate research. Ahtar is willing to work the mill if he retires from his executioner work."

"Ah, that makes sense. He wants to settle down with Jala?"

Sorex nodded, "Executioners have a hard time retiring, so if he does he wants to leave Solitude. Jala apparently will only marry him after he retires too. Jala's market stall doesn't make a ton of money. So she was willing to sell her family home and move to the mill if Ahtar retires too. The obvious catch to this is we would need to find a new executioner."

I put the mill's information to the side, "The talk about a replacement will need to be discussed with Captain Aldis. So we can just buy the mill for now and pay someone from Falkreath to up keep it."

Sorex nodded and turned back to the assassinations. "I confirmed Leigelf was the one behind Beitild's death. Thing is, check this out." Sorex passed me a document.

I raised an eyebrow and flipped through the new document. "Why would he go through such lengths to buy the mine? Did you get the reason?"

Sorex shrugged, "I just know he bought it for 10k gold and a 2 year contract to pay out 20% of Iron-breaker resources to the Jarl. I couldn't get a hold of any other information."

I added it to the investigation pile, "We can come back to this. Ennodius Papius, Naarfi and Deekus were all killed without anything of note?"

Sorex nodded, "Pretty much, as for Anoriath, he was killed in broad daylight. Got a description of the Assassin."

I raised an eyebrow at the description, "A 4'8 Argonian with all black scales? A little on the nose as a shadowscale." The fact they were a player was a little obvious.

Sorex rubbed his chin in thought, "I heard that term before... What is a shadowscale?"

"Shadowscales are Argonian assassins. Though with how they are raised, trained, and groomed. They are close to super soldiers, some are placed in the dark brotherhood as contacts. Some are executioners. While others are private assassins of the Argonian royals, tribe leaders and so on. The story behind them is complicated, but most of them follow the 5 Sithis Tenets."

Sorex paused, "Ah, I know where I heard the term." He stopped the back and forth and turned around to dig through books behind him. He quickly flipped through the books, but eventually pulled one completely out. "Check this out."

I raised an eyebrow and read the written information. "Ah, a battalion of argonian were captured by the thalmor. When confronted they claimed the individuals were shadowscales. The battalion were later confirmed to be refugees."

Sorex nodded, "Read the rest."

I already was reading the other paragraphs. They were equally as interesting. "This will require some investigation. The fact they are escorting so many argonians to Illiac bay is suspicious. It is incredibly far though."

Sorex nodded, "Might be a source of labor."

I smirked at Sorex and he smiled back. "You are right, we will save this information for the right client."

Sorex added to the paragraph and slipped the book back onto the shelf. I leaned back in my chair. We were more less done with all the information about the brotherhood. From my guess they were about to begin the series of contracts to kill the emperor. "Are there any mercs we can hire?"

Sorex nodded, "You want to send them to Raldbthar, right?" I nodded and Sorex continued. "I have some on notice, how much will they be paid and what is the job specifically."

Sorex knew Raldbthar was related to our dark brotherhood investigation. He also had some important questions. "Let's go with 700 gold to check out if some individuals have been killed there. an additional 400 gold for identification of the bodies. An extra 200 if they keep the identification discreet." I rubbed my chin in some thought and finally added, "Finally a 2000 bonus added to explore the ruins and bring back unique dwemer equipment, any blue glowing crystals, and anything odd in general."

Sorex nodded and grabbed the gold I placed on the counter. "I'll hire them by tomorrow. Anything else?"

I rubbed my chin in some thought, "Have the Penitus Oculatus arrived in Dragon's bridge yet?"

Sorex shook his head, "They are in Markarth currently. Speaking of... I wanted to talk about Markarth. Some crazy shit has gone down there. Despite the city still being in contact with the outside. The city is almost completely split in half from my estimations about 60% of the city is in control of the Forsworn. Several of the more mundane citizens have completely fled the city."

Ah, I saw where he was going with this. "The leaving citizens are heading for Solitude and Morthal?"

He nodded, "We can recruit them, but we will need to do some extensive background checks. The earliest arrivals have passed around rumors of cannibals, cultists and sightings of a werebeast. Now I say werebeast as no one has identified the creature."

I nodded, I knew Markarth was a shit hole. I hadn't left any information about the place for Sorex to use. The two daedric quests, Cidhna mine quest, and finally the complete mess that was the Dibella Temple.

"As I said before, avoid Markarth. The place is too messy to keep track of. Keep tracking rumors that come from there. However anything about the city should be tracked with skepticism." Sorex nodded, "Try to weed out any information about any cults though. I didn't tell you before due to the danger. However with us being established, I feel it is time to tell you."

Sorex raised an eyebrow, "Should I write this down?"

I nodded, "Go ahead." I waited for him to prepare the needed material and began speaking again. "Markarth is the location of a cult, coven? of Namira, the daedric prince."

Sorex looked up and yelped, "What? So the cannibal rumors are real?"

I nodded, "That's not all, an alter to Molag Bal is within the city itself. A priest of Boethiah goes there to mock Molag Bal for Boethiah. As you can imagine if a worshipper of Molag Bal were to capture that priest for the daedric prince..."

Sorex paused and took a deep breath. "No need to continue, I know why you didn't include this information. I will place it under the Extremely Dangerous information."

I nodded, "That would be for the best."

Sorex tapped his pencil against the paper. "Actually, do you think the Dawnguard would be willing to buy the information about the alter?"

I smiled at Sorex, "Well, I'm sure they would pay something. In time if we ever need to sell information about Markarth we could also be the guild to organize the clean up of Markarth."

Sorex paused, "Would that be genocide? We would need to kill a ton of Reachmen."

Ah, ethics... "We will think about that in the future."

Sorex nodded, "Anything else on the menu?"

I tapped my finger on the desk. "That's about it, other than our inevitably tax evasion."

Sorex nodded, "Ah, the donations to the temple. Why so much?"

The major middle finger I was planning for the Thalmor. "Eh, building a well if we get caught red handed in are more dubious mercantile business."

Sorex sighed, "I know you better than that. What are you planning?"

I smirked, "Okay fair, Three large statues. They are yet to be needed, but the donations to the temple will help us in building them."

Sorex paused, "You plan on making a statue of Talos? That's my best guess."

I nodded, "Akatosh, Talos and someone else. He has yet to preform, but the light show will be amazing. I know that much."

I was being cryptic only because Kyne had yet to truly cross the boundary into legend. I did decide to elaborate one why. "I am planning to create a new holiday and with it some new laws. Things haven't aligned yet though. Anything else you can think of?"

Sorex shook his head, "Not really."

With that we both started sorting and storing the books. This sadly would last longer than our discussion. Sorex paused, "I am going to go get drinks for us."