Lucy's Journal #10: The Riften Thieves Guild

• Posted by Piper Jo December 13, 2011 - 628 views

  10th of Heartfire, 4E 201

  It was surprisingly easy to contact the Thieves Guild in Riften.  In Markarth, the Thieves Guild maintained a certain level of secrecy.  If you asked the average merchant about the Thieves Guild, there was a fifty-fifty chance he'd say we were a myth.  That’s what I expected in Riften.  Instead, after a couple of inquiries, I discovered that everyone in town not only knew of the Guild, but also how to make contact, and where the hideout was.  That should have been my first clue that something wasn’t right, but I wasn’t looking for that sort of clue.

  Brynjolf, the Guild front man, made contact with me in the Market, saying, “You look like just the kind of individual I’d like to know.”  The moment I saw him, I wanted to ask him about my parents, but knowing he wouldn’t tell me anything unless I earned his confidence, I agreed to participate in a little shill job against one of the open-air merchants. While Brynjolf distracted the crowd with a crazy sales pitch, I was to break into the lock box of one merchant, steal a ring, and plant it on another. “He crossed the wrong people.  We just want him to spend a couple of days in jail to consider the error of his ways.” I’ve only recently gotten good at this sort of thing, and I was eager to test myself.

  While I worked, I admired Brynjolf’s performance.  Everyone seemed to know he was a con man, yet his pitch drew the merchants in almost against their will. Falmer blood? Ha!  You know, I encountered Falmer in the ruins below Markarth.  I found no alchemical use whatever for their blood.  Their ears, on the other hand…

  Brynjolf abruptly cut off his medicine show when he saw that I’d completed my part.  “Well done,” he told me.  “If you’d like more jobs of the same sort, meet me at the Ragged Flagon in the Ratways.  If you make it there, I’ll know you’re the one I’ve been looking for.”

  My eyes widened; he’d been looking for me. Ma and Da must have asked him to keep an eye out.  What’s more, this was clearly my initiation challenge for the Guild!

  After Brynjolf disappeared into the crowd, I tapped my finger on my teeth and considered the issue of Lydia.  I might be invited to the Flagon, but she was not; the initiation challenge must be completed alone. I told her to wait with Meeko while I set off to find the Ratways.

  Making my way to the Ragged Flagon was frankly not that challenging, and I said as much to Brynjolf when I found him.  He laughed out loud and complimented me.  I looked around, but did not see my parents.  “I’m looking for a couple of Guild thieves named Henri…”

  “Whoa, whoa!” he raised his hands to stop me.  “I can’t divulge information about members except to other members.”

  “But I thought…”

  “That you were in?” he chuckled.  “Like you said, that was too easy.  We need you to take care of some business for us first.  Then we can talk about who is or isn’t here.”

  With an effort, I pushed down my impatience, and said as calmly as I could, “Of course.  What do you need from me?”

  “There are a few merchants that haven’t been keeping up with their payments,” he said.  “We need you to convince them to pay.  It’s a matter of maintaining respect.”

  The Thieves Guild was running a protection racket?  That surprised me.  No, it shocked me, but I told myself that I was new at this and I should withhold judgment until I saw for myself how it worked.

  There were three merchants on Brynjolf’s list.  It was Bersi Honey-Hand that really made me think about what I was doing.  Brynjolf had said that Bersi’d pay if I threatened his dwarven urn.  Well, as predicted, he wasn’t eager to pay.  His words were, “The Thieves Guild can’t even protect itself.  What can they do to me?”  So, following Brynjolf’s advice, I started playing with his urn, wobbling it back and forth on its base.  It was the sort of thing you could pick up in Markarth for less than 20 septims, but Bersi got plenty excited.  I settled the urn back on its base and arched my eyebrows.  This time, he insulted me personally. I set the urn rocking again, letting it get wilder and wilder, while his wife yelled at him from the back room, “Oh Bersi, just pay them already!”  Then the urn cracked and so did Bersi.

  Like I said, it wasn’t actually valuable to anyone but him.  But I felt like a skeever, which I think is what he called me.  Why would the Guild be leaning on humble locals like Bersi?  If you want to make money, you target the people that have it, not your own neighbors.  That’s like gnawing off your own leg for a meal.  No wonder this branch of the Guild was having troubles. Modryn Farys would have never put up with this kind of thing.  I wondered what he thought of the Riften operation and how he was getting along with the local doyen.   

  I reported back to the Ragged Flagon feeling decidedly less excited than last time. Brynjolf congratulated me and proceeded to show me around.  I followed him into a cistern of fresh water behind the Flagon, where he introduced me to the doyen, Mercer Frey.  I was introduced around, which was nice, but I didn’t see anyone from the Markarth Guild, so finally I asked Mercer Frey.

  “Listen, I’m looking for any guild members that may have moved here from Markarth.  In particular, I’m looking for a Breton woman named Lauren who specializes in…”

  Frey cut me off.  “You got a score to settle, you do it on your own time.  Keep it out of the Flagon.  Right now, we’ve got work for you to do.”  I felt like he’d slapped me.  I opened my mouth to speak, but couldn’t think what to say.

  Brynjolf grabbed my shoulder and steered me away from Frey.  He wrapped his arm around me and leaned in close so that all I could see what his face.  “I apologize for our guild master.  Once you get to know him, he’s a cupcake.  You’ll see.”

  “I think he misunderstood,” I tried to explain.  “There’s no score to settle.  I’m trying to find my parents.”

  Light dawned in Brynjolf’s face. “Ah! I thought you said you were looking for a Breton.”

  “Yes, I…”

  “I’m sure we can help you find your people once we’re done with this next job.”

  “Can’t you just tell me…”

  “Hut-tut-tut!  There’s no time to waste.  Once this job is done, we’ll get everyone in the Flagon together around a table with a round of mead and hash out what we know. Agreed?”

  Reluctantly, I agreed.  He described the job.  Once again, it was about sending a message to someone who wasn’t cooperating.  I was to break into a heavily guarded country estate, steal everything out of the safe, burn three beehives to the ground, and get out alive.

  The people in the Flagon were finally willing to talk to me, so I took the opportunity to ask around about the job I’d just been assigned. The Guild’s burglary specialist, Vex, had already failed the same task.  That piqued my interest.  If I could succeed where she had failed, then my reputation would be made.  I also asked about the Guild in general.  What was up with this place? Why the rough reputation?  I learned that Markarth was not the only Guild branch to close down.  Thieves Guild branches had been shutting down operations all over the country for the past several decades.  Riften was the last operating branch, and that only because of the sponsorship of the ruthless Maven Blackbriar, who also had connections to the Dark Brotherhood, damn their souls.  The most interesting comment came from Delvin Mallory, who said he believed the Guild was cursed.  Based on what I had seen, I could see why.  The idea occurred to me that if I found that altar mentioned in my Nightingales book, maybe I could pray to Nocturnal for help turning the Guild around, and then maybe she would forgive her people.

  So my plan for Goldenglow estate was this: I sent Lydia in the front door as a distraction, while I snuck in through the sewer.  I know—sounds familiar, doesn’t it?  This time, I was convinced it would work. 

  I managed to get upstairs, and with the help of an invisibility potion, I pickpocketed the homeowner for the key to his safe.  Something odd about that guy—he was crouching in a corner, but he seemed to be in a trance because he never moved when I picked his pocket.  I even thought he saw me at one point.  He was breathing, so I didn’t hang around to investigate, but it was creepy and it still puzzles me.  By the time I got downstairs, Lydia was in full battle with four guards.  I dove in and helped her. Then we had to kill the guards in the basement to get to the safe. 

  The beehives were on a second island.  I had intended to swim out, climb the rocks, torch the hives and get out before the guards were alerted, but those basalt walls were just too steep to climb—at least, not without being seen.  Frustrated, I circled around to the bridge, assaulted the front gate and killed the guards.

  In the end, we got the job done, but not the way I would have chosen.  I wanted to demonstrate stealth, subtlety--finesse.  Instead, as usual with me, the whole thing ended up being a brute force boot-to-the-face kind of thing.  It’s embarrassing, and I can’t blame it all on Lydia, though I’m not bringing her along on any more stealth jobs.  I guess it’s unreasonable for me to try to make a burglar out of a housecarl.  She did create a distraction, which was exactly what I asked of her.

  Brynjolf and Frey didn’t care that I’d killed a few guards.  “Don't feel bad about it.  Orcs aren't so great at subtlety and that's fine,” Brynjolf told me.  “We asked you to send a message, and I don’t think it could have been any clearer.  The Thieves Guild is not to be messed with!  Haha!  You’ve attracted the attention of Maven Black-brier.  She wants to talk to you.”

  “Wait,” I said.  “You said once I had completed the job, we could look for my folks.”

  “Yeah, yeah sure, but you have to understand.  No one keeps Maven Black-brier waiting.”

  Well, she can wait for me.  Brynjolf is a con man, and he’s been leading me by the nose.  My people are obviously not here.  What’s more, I’m glad of it.  I’d hate to see my folks associating with these thugs. The frustrating thing is, I don’t know whether they’ve been here and moved on, or whether they never came.  One way or the other, by the Nine, where do I look next?

  I left them with the impression I was going to talk to Maven Black-brier.  Instead, Lydia, Meeko and I loaded into a buckboard and headed for Solitude to find Swims-in-Shadows.