Riften disappoints immediately. The ubiquitous damp is pretty appealing to a person of my race, but everything else is lame; the thug threatening me inside the gate being hardly the worst of it. The worst is the hyper-alert police force--I do some exploratory surgery on one of the bigger houses, and the guards are on me in moments.
Just like with the Pale Guards, I'm not interested in paying even a small fine, because a visit to the guardhouse will get me stripped of my precious stuff, most importantly, the bow I lifted back in Whiterun from that cult. And I can't pull a Dawnstar here and lure the guard off somewhere isolated and kill her. So I flee into the sewers.
The sewers are also occupied, unfortunately, but there's no repercussions for killing these wastrels.
To my surprise, there's a pub at the end of the tunnel. But nobody's talking. I bring up the Thieves' Guild I've heard about, and everyone gets really evasive. They're also no help with the guards no doubt covering all the sewers' exits, so I'm forced to head back up top by myself.
Then I notice all the shipping crates stacked around the canal, and I get an idea. I take all my stolen goods and stuff them into a nearby barrel.
After that, I head up top and happily turn myself in. I pay the tiny fine, my stuff checks out, and I'm a free ma...lizard. I head back down to the canal, pick up my things, and go to the market to see if anyone will buy it.
I'm pleasantly surprised to see I'm not the only Argonian here, and spend some time chatting it up with a jeweler named Madesi. But as I'm feigning interest in his wares, really just hoping he calls me "marshfriend" again, some Nose approaches me and makes me a shady offer.
Basically it involves screwing over some dark elf. I don't know why, and don't care, although I am curious as to why I keep getting hired to ruin some dark elf's day. But while it involves a bit of stealing from Madesi, I understand that I'm getting paid and my marshfriend--yes!--will actually come out on top in the end.
I do the job and I'm invited back to the sewers. It's a weird place for a job interview, but I'm happy to see that the pub people are a lot friendlier to me now that I come with a character reference. The job is less interesting than the first one--shaking down some debtors--but I go along with it, feeling myself close in on the Guild.
I begin looking for my targets, and stumble across an orphanage that I find quite interesting. Something about it seems familiar, but the gaggle of kids talking about a certain Aventus Aretino drive it home. I check out this Grelod woman for myself. Heck, I'd kill her for free.
While the rest of the job is mostly distasteful and has me threatening the marshfriends who run the local inn, I do relish one part.
Job complete, I run back to the s--
Ow.
My regenerative abilities kick in, though, and my head and pride are fully healed by the time I get back to the Guild. They're suitably impressed with my efforts, and give me the best reward they could've possibly given me:
Access to their fence.
Oh, yeah--I'm rolling in it now. She fixes me up with some sweet gear, which I appreciate, but I'm more interested in unloading all the stolen goods I've been lugging around since I dramatically absconded from Windhelm. I also get a new knife, and I know just who I'm going to show it to.
Night's a ways off, though, so I decide to try making amends to the marshfriend family I terrorized earlier in the day: I patronize their inn. The bed is ratty, like everything in Riften, but for a guy who's been going like a maniac for five days now, it more than suffices.
I set my internal alarm clock to midnight by consuming an inordinate amount of moldy cheese. Nature wakes me more or less on time, so I do my business and then head over to Honorhall Orphanage for my other business.
Killing Grelod is as easy as stabbing an old woman in the back, but pretending she's the hagraven who killed Assfalloff makes it more fulfilling. And if that wasn't enough, the cheers of some grotesquely delighted children pretty much cinch it for me.
That's right, kids; I'm here all week.
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