Into Skyrim, Elder Scrolls 8 Nirn's Beta-Chapter 125: Double Feature

Sorex had turned off the lights and left the Guild's Office. Leaving me in the dark room alone. I could hear the festive night of planned activities outside the door. Tonight was the 2nd night to implement a theme. In time every night would have one.

I smiled at the plan we had designed to subtlety scam people. Yesterday was the first themed night, we had hired some participants to kick it off. However by the end of the night it paid off and in time Trivia night would test all who participate. From easy to difficult trivia centered around gossip, politics and history. In time people would provide new informational tidbits to add to our own. Trivia night also reward those who gave good answers with cheaper or even free drinks.

Tonight though was much more important. We had decided tonight would be double feature night. The whole night was a pocket change stealing scheme. I introduced Sorex to the idea of Shots, and tonight specifically, all shots were doubled. We slid some extra gold to Pantea and the Bards college to have music playing all night.

Hearing the noise I suspect we might need to slip guards a little gold too. However the money we gained from the shots which were more expensive than a bottle of ale. The extra gold was hardly a problem. The rowdiness of tonight though was perfect. I watched the magic outline of two individuals.

The identities of the two weren't known, but at the same time wasn't hard to guess. Telling that they were both in stealth it was a quick guess. Though perhaps I was wrong about one of them. Not all the players were accounted for. However the one creeping through the winking skeever and toward the office door was by far the more obvious one.

He was really creeping through the whole building instead of just taking a window. We had two installed into the office, he could've easily entered through one. We hadn't even installed the metal bars on them yet. The creativity was disappointing and as i watched him begin to lock pick the door I had to hold back a scoff. novelbuddy.cσ๓

The door slowly opened, the new hinges prevented creaking I shook my head at the slow process. I waited though, no point in setting this all up if I was going to blow it. He entered the room and slowly closed the door.

He armor was all black, the standard Nightingale Armor. My eyebrow raised slightly though as I noticed him slip the skeleton key back into his pocket. To have both the armor and the key was interesting.

He took a single step into the room and a bear trap snapped onto his foot. He jerked, but to my surprise he remained silent. He held it in well, but he spoke to himself in a low tone. "How the fuck?"

He grabbed the bear trap and pulled his foot free from it. His eyes swept the room and he sighed. "Of course I stepped on the only trap."

I nearly giggled at narration. He stepped forward, but it didn't take him far as he fell forward. He landed on two other bear traps. This time he let out a small yelp. I peered over the desk and shook my head. I finally broke my invisibility and stood up speaking. "The bear traps were shadow blended into the floor and all laced with a tranquilizer designed to take down werewolves."

I could see the thief player grow wide eyed. "How! You were invisible?"

I raised an eyebrow, "Well, not just invisible. I had several spells on me, like Camouflage, Muffle, Chameleon, Shadowblend, Invisibility, Shadow Weave and Vanish. Not to mention my own stealth bonus. By the way I was watching you the entire time with a spell called Detect Player."

The Thief made a horrible sound with his mouth. His tongue had clearly gone limp. I slid a hand over armor. "I have so many questions for you. However I need to attend to my other guest for night. Who I suspect is less hostile than you. I were expecting them, but the moment you checked into the winking skeever I knew I had to keep an eye on you. You really rented a room? At least you will get to use it."

I whistled and within a few seconds Viree opened the door to the office. She looked down at the thief, "You weren't kidding. You want me to take him to the room he rented?"

I nodded, "Keep him there. You know the drill."

She nodded and picked up the thief and I could see his limp body twitch trying to struggle. I stopped Viree, "Make sure you break his hands. He is already trying to struggle."

Viree nodded and exited the office. Now alone once more I turned to face the magic outline outside. They were simply observing, the question was how. They were a shadowscale... Perhaps infrared? I looked at the magic outline sitting on top of the roof of a different building.

The only real threat was if they were a stealth archer. However between the assassin and the thief, today I suspected the thief was the more dangerous of the two. I still layered magic spells on myself just in case and stepped forward toward the window. Sliding the glass panel up I looked toward the assassin. No arrow came so I waved. "Hello! Are you here about the quest line?"

I recieved no response, the guy clearly saw what happened with the thief. There was no way they didn't, but the assassin didn't move. I rolled my eyes, a guard looked up toward me. "Vek, what are you doing?"

I waved at the guard, "Hey Max! Just trying to talk to this assassin. No need to worry, everything is under control."

Max gave a thumbs up and walked toward the castle dour. He was switching his shift for gate patrol. I looked back at the assassin and jumped when I saw two black eyes staring at me. They had un-stealthed, but remained complete still.

The assassin spoke, and to my utter shock a feminine voice came out. "How did you see me?"

I nodded and spoke, "An answer for an answer. I told the thief how I detected you two, so I guarantee on my word I will tell you. If you tell me how you were observing us."

The assassin nodded, "I figured you would be like this. I've been observing you for the past two days actually. I've been in solitude for the past week though. From my observations you have a reputation for your estimations. To put simply, how do you think I was observing you?"

She was a rather chatty assassin wasn't she. Her monotone voice and robotic movements showed interesting qualities though. I shrugged, "Come into my office so we can speak easier. Talking across roof tops is rather open. I mean you literally saw Max switching shifts."

She nodded, "Back up so I may jump through the window."

I took a step back and she jumped directly into the window like a cat rather than a lizard. She was small and fit rather well inside the window. She spoke before I could, "I hope you do not expect me to fully enter."

I chuckled, "So you were observing, you have infrared vision?"

She nodded, "Something close, part of the reward I received from my personal quest."

I blinked, "Personal quest?" My mind flickered to the quest log and I remembered my own personal quest. "Ah, that. I haven't even started mine. What was yours."

She held out a hand. "I believe you would charge for that?"

Ah, clever. I leaned back onto the office desk and returned to the observation remarks like she wanted. "I was watching you and the thief through a spell called Detect player."

Her eyes went a little wide and I could see they really were back pearls. She gave a brief nod, "Fascinating spell, did you make it?"

"I did." I left out the part on how I created it. I walked around my desk and sat back down. "Truthfully I suspected you would visit. Though I had no idea who you were."

She nodded, "My name is Eezra Krai, I replaced Veezara directly, I have all his memories, but from my own perspective."

Oh? So she knew about the overlapping and she has the direct memories of who she replaced. "Vek Frostwane, though you knew that didn't you? So let's get all the back and forth out of the way. "How many players have you killed, I assumed the dark brotherhood would've been a mess."

She nodded, "It was, I killed three other players. One killed Grelod, another used the password and the third... he was my brother. Veezara...." I raised an eyebrow at her remark. I felt a smile creep onto my face. "You replaced him directly. Clever wording. So you had the same backstory, working together and all that?"

She looked a little sad I wasn't surprised by the discovery. She nodded, "Truthfully I couldn't begin to explain the chaos. It is why the dark brotherhood quest line is behind."

It wasn't that behind, but it did feel a little slow. "Begin with the other players, no talk about prices. I'm sure you can understand the need to document all the players."

She nodded, "I do, but we can talk about that later. I'm here on business, once it is concluded I will enter the Inn properly we can talk about the rest after."

I rolled my eyes, "Fair enough, I need to deal with the thief so if this draws on it will become a problem. What is your business here? I assume it is about the quest line?"

She nodded, "A little bit of asking you not to interfere and a little bit to beg for help."

I nodded, that made some sense. "Let's start with the interference. I won't stop you from killing anyone except the gourmet. I want him."

She raised an eyebrow, "For what?"

So she didn't investigate that deep. "I have a project going on down near Riften. I wish for the gourmet to be sent there and use his cooking skills. I'll even pay you, if you want."

She nodded, "I can do that. Where do I send him exactly?"

I thought about it, "Eh, bag him and send him here. I can use him to help you later on in your quest line. Are you here for the wedding?"

Eezra nodded, "Yes, figured I would spend a little bit of time here before I do what I need. Will you interfere?"

I shook my head, "No, she is a business rival, you killing her benefits me. I will say if you kill Aquillius Aeresius as well i will pay you."

She paused, "Give me the tranquilizer you used on the thief and 5000 gold and you got a deal."

I nodded, "Wow, expensive. You can get paid after." She didn't know the tranquilizer was endless so i can poor some into a flask and pass it to her later. I tapped on my desk, "Moving on though, I won't interfere with anything else. Though I will likely be asked to help during the security. If that happens I'll hang a red flag from this window."

Eezra paused, "Aren't you worried that you might get in trouble? You literally just told a guard you were talking to an assassin."

I raised an eyebrow, "I mean, I established an information guild. Truth be told I already made it known I know your location. Though I won't sell the dawnstar location, just so you know. No one that matters will completely blame me that I helped the dark brotherhood. I can simply say I sold you information I know and I can sell the information you bought and tactical plans to counter it."

Her eyes fluttered, it looked creepy with her lizard biology. She finally nodded, "That makes sense. I will keep that in mind. You will make a good friend. I will visit another time in civilian clothes to talk about our shared commonalities."

She dove backwards and I watched her land on the other roof. I want to say she picked acrobatics as one of her starting skills, but I knew that wasn't possible. If I think about the bow on her back and her affiliation. She was likely a stealth archer build... Oh, she wanted the tranquilizer. She likely picked stealth archery and alchemy.

I slipped a pencil from the makeshift pencil holder. I wrote a note about the red flag. Different colored flags was a smart method to communicate with certain groups. The code could be designed similar to the shadow marks. "Speaking of, I should go visit the thief now."

I got up and put the pencil back. I looked down at the floor and and crept around the invisible traps. When sunlight pours in they will be revealed. I'll let Sorex deal with them at that point.