Right now, I’m wishing that I had stayed up on the mountain with Angi. That morning, I took up her offer and tried out her little target test. Easy enough; just hit three targets. She was mildly impressed, mentioning that I had just gotten past the easiest part of her training. I mentioned my intentions to head to Falkreath, and that unfortunately put a sad look on her face. I asked if she wanted to come with me. Surely by now, things would have quieted down. Plus, with Helgen destroyed, why would anyone be looking for her. She thought it over quietly before offering a simple “Not this time.”
I waved goodbye before heading out. I could hear her yelling something like “Bring some Black-Brier mead next time you come visit. Now that I’ve written it here in my journal, I have no excuse not to remember.
With just the general directions to Falkreath, I stumbled on, finding a strange cavern. Peering inside, I found a wealth of mushrooms; mushrooms that would not doubt find their way into a potion before long. I also found some bodies. Three fellows, bandits perhaps, lay at the base of a strange pillar. The pillar radiated a bright light. There was actually a beam of light shining up from the ghastly pillar. I pocketed a small journal that I had seen lying there and ran. I had had enough experience with strange caverns already. I marked it on the small map that Angi had given to me and continued on my way to Falkreath. I will admit, that was one dreary city. It was too late for the shops to be open so I simply bought a room for the night. There was a rather cute girl there, dressed in a flirty short dress, a dagger at her side, looking like trouble. Suddenly I could tell why this dreary little bar in the inn was so busy. We flirted for a bit back and forth before I purchased a meal of grilled leeks. I had already spent more than I wanted to.
Later that night, I lay in my bed reading that little journal I had found. It belonged to a fellow named Agrius, who had run away from a bandit gang with his buds. It was really a sad story. These three bandits wanted to make a clean break from their life of crime, only to end up sacrificing themselves to some demon. I was determined at that time to do something about it. This Halldir will pay if I have anything to say about it. For then then, I was just content to black out.
The next morning, however, it was business as usual. I made my way to the general store in the town, talking to a man named Solaf. A nice enough fellow compared to his brother at least. He took my loot of hide armour, mostly bracers and boots; they seemed to fetch the best price. He didn’t even blink at the somewhat messy nature of some of them, by messy I mean bloody. He even bought some potions that I had brewed up at the alchemy station at the inn. My true purpose for the visit was not to simply get some weight out of my sack. I casually scoped out the place, noting the expensive potions on the back wall and a chest under the staircase. With a polite goodbye, I took my leave, heading to the potions shop I had heard Solaf mention. It was called Grave Concoctions, an odd name that appeared to be part of a running joke around town. The whole idea of the city being a cemetery led to some creative names, no doubt to prevent everyone from becoming too depressed. After another few hours of potion making, I sold my wares to the grateful Redguard woman and headed out, my coin purse growing a bit larger. I still needed to find some gear to replace my old gear, probably still at Helgen somewhere. Skyrim seemed like a very different country than Cyrodiil, one where thievery was not encouraged in the slightest. My stock of lockpicks was still pretty high, and an invisibility potion (freshly brewed) as well as a few potions for fortify sneakiness were a start. With my affairs in order, I headed back to that cursed cave. I still had a job to do there.
Upon entering it, I was immediately rushed by several glowing phantoms. Their blades where real enough though. My trusty axe as well as my enchanted hunting bow tore through them quickly. The sneaky buggers seemed to come right out from the walls, as I found out soon enough, finding myself surrounded by three of them. That particular fight forced me to run like a coward through the winding halls, using my bow to finish the ghouls one by one. At the very least, there were a few treasures here though. One relatively simple puzzle later and I had made it rather deep into the cavern. It was here that I encountered my first draugr. The long dead zombies were much stronger physically than any ghost, or me. My steel dagger, imbued with a fire magic, burned through them even faster than my axe. Finally I reached the main room, directly above the beam of energy. There, there was a strange mix of ghost and draugr. He launched small bolts of fire at me while swinging his large sword. I will admit I truly loved my Breton blood then. His spells were rather insignificant compared to his sword, and quite easy to dodge. I rained arrows down from afar, well aware that I was not making much of a dent on him. Then with a scream, he burst into blue flames. The warm feeling that danger had passed did not even get to start before I notice that there were now THREE ghostly ghouls, all of them pouring forth magic from their hands. I rushed one, smashing him in the face with my axe. He fell off balance as I brought the blade into his neck several times. His body lay there for a second as I grabbed up a strange axe. The body vanished a second later, leaving the axe in my hand.
I had of course forgotten about the other ghouls though, who strangely did not press the attack, but guarded their respectful corners, spewing elemental magic at me with increasingly poor accuracy. I rushed the second one, who spewed fire at me for all his worth. It was not enough. A solid slam from the axe handle had him up against the wall, vulnerable to my assault. I blocked a wild blow from him, feeling the cold energy hit me, but a smack from a torch that I had scavenged and a heavy overhead swing threw his body to the ground. I grabbed his axe before converging on the last one. This one shot bolts of energy that burned like the sun. One hit left me tingling. I fell back, launching bolts of my own at him, bolts of iron, wood and lightning. He must have used up his magicka because his assault ended, leaving him unwilling to leave his post, yet unable to hit me. He fell to an arrow to the head. I barely managed to run over there and snatch up his sword before his body exploded.
There stood yet another shade, right in the middle of the room. I contemplated how long this would go on and pressed the attack, my torch and axe at the ready. This shade however, if he was even the same person, was much more equipped to deal with my pitiful on slaughter. He retaliated swiftly, spraying a cold mist that sapped my strength, at the same time swinging his steel blade with deadly accuracy. I really should not have survived that. I was left scurrying away, desperately chugging my few potions, trying to regain strength. My trusty bow proved to be my savior, launching arrow after arrow into the creature as I bolted around the room in a deadly game of “catch the skeever”. Needless to say, he finally did fall to his knees. And when he did, I ran over with my axe, slamming it into his neck. Twice actually, his bones seemed harder than humanly possible. He collapsed into a pile of ash, leaving his heavy blade and a strange staff. While I was wary to pick up the inhumane objects, no one will accuse this thief of leaving behind a valuable. With Agruis and his friends avenged, I left that cursed cavern.
Matthias sat at the lonely table at Deadman’s Drink. He set his quill down, slipping his journal back into a backpack. Now there was nothing to do but kill time. Well, almost nothing. He left the bar and headed to the local blacksmith. He stilled need to get some “kit” before his raid tonight. In small towns like these, it seems that the kit he needed was never available. In Cyrodiil, you couldn’t go six feet before someone would be offering you a ring to improve pickpocketing (While pickpocketing you nevertheless). Here, things were a bit harder though. The blacksmith though, seemed to have just what he wanted.
Matthias stared at the hide boots that the local man had out for display. Lightweight, quiet, and best of all, they had a major stealth enchantment. He realized that he had been looking far too eager, as he could almost see the blacksmith mentally raising the price.
“You do a lot of hunting?” The local asked.
This was always the loaded question. Anything with a sneak enchantment could be used by only three kinds of people: Hunters, thieves and assassins. Well, more than three. There was always an unfaithful husband or two that used those enchantments for their benefit. If ever asked what you planned to do with said enchanted object, the only safe answer what to go as a hunter.
“No, not as much as I would like to. Those boots might just change that.” Matthias played it off as a novice hunter, realizing that the price probably was mentally raised again. It couldn’t be helped. There was no way Matthias could pass as an experienced hunter in his soft (stolen) tunic. He didn’t have any hides to sell either. Maybe if he could have come a bit more prepared, he might have been able to get away with a smaller price. Needless to say, the blacksmith had him pinned as a middleclass noble, eager to prove his manliness, which was better than being pegged as a thief at least. Matthias knew that buying those boots was going to kill his wallet. He still had some odd potions and trinkets to trade, but those would only be bought by a general store. A blacksmith had no need for them.
“You keep those boots warm for me; I’m going to see what I can scavenge for funds.” Matthias said as he turned to leave. He hoped that would revise the blacksmith’s stereotype of him, maybe let him think that Matthias was not really that rich, or at least suggest that he was not a complete fool with his money. Either or would hopefully lower the price to a more feasible amount.
A short walk brought him to the General Store, where Solaf greeted him friendly enough. Some rings and jewels from his mission of vengeance were converted into gold, as well as some spare potions. He would easily have enough for the boot. Then, a twinkle caught his eye. The storekeeper showed him a circlet, and not just any ordinary circlet. Matthias had already sold one of those. This circlet was enchanted to raise the wearers understanding of potions, turning them into a potion’s master. Matthias knew enough not to believe the store owner’s story, but even still, a circlet like that would easily help him make some stronger invisibility potions, maybe even a few poisons. He bought it, haggling the price down to about 1200 gold pieces, which with some bartering, still left him with about 3300 in gold and assets that he was willing to part with. A smile on his face, he left the store, very conscious of his light wallet. This boots would probably drain the rest of his gold, but they would pay for themselves easily in a few nights.
“What do you mean 3600 gold pieces?” Matthias yelled at the blacksmith. He simply shrugged.
“These are a very fine boot, with a very useful enchantment. One I would gladly sell to any hunter, hunters who would easily pay that price tag.” It was all a lie, hunters never made much money, it was the wild and free lifestyle that drew them in. “Perhaps some enchanted gloves to help with you bowman ship would be more in your price range?”
Matthias couldn’t tell if the comment was because the blacksmith had realized that Matthias couldn’t afford that price, because the blacksmith was goading him into splurging for the high value merchandise, or a genuine concern that he was making the poorer than he though noble buy something out of his price range, yet still wanting to help him out and turn a profit.
“I can’t bloody well afford that! And I don’t want your bloody gloves! I have enough gloves, gloves enough to fit an army of ten handed monsters.” Matthias went a bit overboard on that. He was losing his patience though and it showed.
The blacksmith refused to lower the price. He knew exactly how much Matthias wanted those gloves. If he had been a less honorable man, he no doubt would have raised the price even more. He knew Matthias would pay it.
Matthias grinded his teeth at his predicament. He pulled out an enchanted axe. He planned to keep both of them, but he could only use one at a time anyways. “How much would you give me for one of these?”
The way the blacksmith quickly grabbed at it showed that there wasn’t too many enchanted weapons here, especially not any as manly as an ancient axe, cold as death itself. The man obviously had some self-control though.
“It’s old steel, and the enchantment it very weak. I guess I could easily sell it as a novelty item.” The gleam in his eye said differently though. His hands were tight around the axe. “I guess I could knock 40 gold off the price for it.”
Matthias glared, snatching his axe back angrily. “Any blacksmith in Skyrim would easily give me a hundred gold pieces for this, and easily make two hundred more on it!” The blacksmith didn’t back down though.
“Forty gold. Final offer.” Now it was pride that was keeping him from lowering his price. Matthias snorted in disgust before taking off in a huff.
“What’s the matter? Dada can’t lend you any more gold?” The blacksmith taunted, obviously a bit miffed at losing his chance to buy the axe.
“Don’t kid yourself; I had to earn every single piece of this gold.” Matthias snarled back. “I’ll be back soon. If you are any man of honour, who will not raise that price any higher when I get back.”
“I can’t promise that they won’t be gone by the time you get back, you haven’t even told me where you are going.”
“It would take a fool to pay that much for those boots, but a fool I’ll be. I’ll pay you the price you ask.” That seemed to take the edge of the man.
“Will you still be selling the axe?” The blacksmith just couldn’t resist asking.
“Not for forty gold I will not.” Matthias left with that parting shot, heading down to Grave Concoctions. With his few scavenged ingredients and his prissy looking tiara, he settled down to brew some potions for an hour. He honestly didn’t care what they were for, he simply needed gold. The redguard woman was only too happy to buy potions from a desperate man, giving him rock bottom prices for them. Matthias grudged sold his stock of Fury potions that he had made the previous day.
He rushed back, a sack of gold in hand. The blacksmith was still in a rather sour mood, so the interaction of short. He thrust to boots at Matthias after pausing to painstakingly count every single coin.
Needless to say, Matthias walked out of there with a new pair of boots, and seven gold coins in his pouch. Now in a rather foul mood, he trudged back to the in. He should have scoped out that bloody blacksmith’s shop too. A few bottles of ale back at Deadman’s Drink helped sooth him over. He spent the rest of the evening relaxing at the fire, too poor to even buy a room for the night. Oh well, after tonight he would be rolling in gold.
Night came, and Matthias slipped out into the dark, noting that Solaf was now in the inn, drinking some of the money that Matthias had given for his fancy alchemy crown. That worked just fine, it meant that the shop would be empty for a bit.
He walked calmly down the street, drawing little attention from the roaming guards. As he approached the General Store, he noticed one guard at the corner, blocking any attempt at breaking through the lower door, and another guard roving the general area. This would require a little bit of improvising. Luckily, the store had an upper level with a porch. Dropping into a crouch, Matthias slowly made his way up the porch, cursing at every creak in the old wood. No matter, he was up there, and he was out of the sight of any guards.
The lock was a piece of cake, even with his crummy picks. He slipped inside, as smooth as water. The upper room was rather empty save for a bed and a chest. There were only a few coins in the unlocked chest, so Matthias was quick to start heading down to the staircase. That was when things started going wrong. While Matthias hadn’t lost all attempts at stealth, he definitely had slacked off.
As he made it way to the stairs, he caught just a peek of a man downstairs. His heart stopped for an instant as the man turned around. Luckily, Matthias had his only invisibility potion in easy reach. As he disappeared from natural vision, he bolted up to the door, slipping through surprisingly quiet despite his current state of mind. He hurried down the stairs and disappeared into the grass outside. He crouched there cursing a fierce stream as he dared the man to come out of the house. Who in oblivion was that? He paused for a second before figuring out the answer on his own. The man had a brother. It could have easily been the brother down there. Hell, he could have easily mistaken Solaf for his brother at the inn. Either way, that job was blown. No one came out of the house, meaning that he had been quick enough with the bloody expensive invisibility potion. No matter, it was time to move on.
The potion’s shop was on the other side of town, but Matthias moved much more cautious than before. Nevertheless, he made it there and stared at the guard standing firm at the opposite building. Matthias kept himself from staring too long. No matter. Matthias disappeared behind the house for half a minute before sneaking back to the door. He had to be quick while the guard was unaware. A few quick prods and the lock was open.
As soon as he snuck in, he knew that this could be trouble. The redguard woman was in bed, but was shuffling around uncomfortably. As Matthias slowly started scooping ingredients and potions into a bag, the redguard started talking.
“Have a good look around, see if there is anything you like.”
Any other occasion, it would have been a nice greeting. Matthias whipped his head at the general direction, but the woman was still just lying there. Her voice sounded extremely sleepy. He chanced slipping behind the counter, out of view. The woman still muttered nonsense, no doubt talking in her sleep. Matthias crouched there silent for a few more minutes before daring to scoop up a bag of coins that was sitting behind the counter. Matthias cursed quietly, he couldn’t spot the fresh stores of potions, like his personal fury potions he had sold earlier. There was no way she had sold all of those already. She shuffled sharply again, causing Matthias to stiffen up. He had to get out soon.
Creeping to the door, he opened it barely a crack, letting one eye look outside. The blasted guard was still there, no doubt enjoying the shelter from the house that he had his back too. Matthias thought quick, before pulling his hood down, messing up his hair, loosening his tunic as well as wrinkling it a bit. He opened a stolen bottle of mead, splashing a bit on his neck. Then he stumbled out the door, still trying to be stealthy. He could feel the guard’s eyes on him almost immediately. He slowly looked up, making brief eye contact before clumsily putting his finger to his lips, giving the guard a wink and a drunken looking smile. The guard simply nodded before looking away. There was certainly lucky that the owner of the store was a single woman. He stumbled out of the guard’s view, and then smoothly darted into cover. The potion shop had given him a good amount of potential gold, but he had missed out on the General Store and his sack was feeling rather light.
He looked sideways at the large longhouse, must be the Jarl’s. His fingers felt rather itchy just thinking of it. His two targets had both gone bad, and he was leaving town as soon as he had enough, so it could be worth it. There was a bit of fear at the thought of barging in, but he was already feeling reckless. He crept up, and quickly realized that door was even unlocked. Good, that means he could bluff his way out if there turned out to be guards all over. With a slow push, he slinked into the unknown.
His fears were uncalled for. The hall was completely empty. Still, he wasn’t taking any chances. He crept into the first room on the right. By the soft looking robe the sleeping man wore, he assumed that it was the Jarl himself. Being extra cautious, Matthias sifted through several drawers in the man’s wardrobe. There were several richly decorated robes, fine boots and even a fancy hat or two. Believe it or not, these clothes sold for a surprisingly high amount of gold, and best of all, they were light. Matthias’s eyes crept to a couple of display cases behind the bed. Now there was a challenge, lockpicking a secure case right behind a Jarl! Actually, it would be easier than expected. The Jarl slept heavy like the fat noble that he was. Any soldier would have jumped at the slight noises. The first case opened to several plain looking books. They must have been expensive though to lock them up. The second case held several expensive looking necklaces. Those would really help take the bite out of buying those boots.
Across the hall slept an armoured Imperial, looking very fancy sleeping in his uncomfortable ridiculous armour. Nevertheless, the boots paid off as Matthias snagged a few more potions from the shelf. The upstairs rooms fell prey to his sticky fingers as well. With his bag heavy, he slipped out, jumping over the spiked fence at the entrance rather than risking going through the main entrance.
After sprinting a few hundred feet, he let out a little yell of delight. That turned out to be the wrong move. A dark clad argonian suddenly appeared, twin daggers in his hands.
“Your money or your life, either way I’ll have your stuff.” There was a sick smile on the lizard’s face. Had he followed Matthias from the town? Did he know that Matthias had a bag full of loot.
“We could both walk away from this.” Matthias said in a low voice, his hand on the enchanted axe he had found in that cave earlier that day. He had been up since morning and it was taking its toll. His other hand grasped the now shrunken version of the staff he had found in that cave. He hadn’t had the chance to even use it yet.
The lizard didn’t take his suggestion rushing forward with both knives. The staff burst into full size, sizzling with a white energy. Matthias pounded it on the ground, letting out a shockwave that over took the lizard. Expecting to see the light fade to scattered ash, Matthias relaxed for a second, only to see the thief standing there unharmed, although rather confused. Their eyes met and the mugger dashed forward again. Matthias parried a few blows with the handle of his axe, acutely aware that he still wore his simple tunic instead of armour. He blocked a blow with his leather gauntlet, catching a slash across his shoulder from the other knife. With a snarl, he slammed his head forward into the argonian’s face. That hurt more than he expected. Without losing a beat, he bashed the hilt of the axe into the lizard’s face for good measure. That have him enough space to slam the blade down, right into the lizard’s neck. The lizard dropped without any grace.
Matthias downed one of his stolen potions, feeling his cuts closing over rapidly. The lizard was not as bright has he looked, or at least was over confident. His purse had a hundred coins, as well as an amethyst, lockpicks and a couple garnets. The thief even had a nice outfit of hardened leather. His gauntlets replaced Matthias’s hide gauntlets, as well as his chest piece. Matthias quickly put the new leather armour on over his clothes, ignoring the odd smell. This thief was surprisingly well kept. Maybe argonian’s weren’t that gross after all.
Now feeling his fatigue setting in, Matthias picked up his rather useless staff and started off towards the general direction of Riverwood, consulting his worn map. Hadvar had mentioned that town, maybe it was a big classy city, but judging from Hadvar, it was probably a rundown small town. The road winded and curved. A bright warm light drew his attention. With the mindset of a dog hunting a rabbit, he stumbled up to it, only to find several rough looking folks standing around the fire. His first thought was bandits, but no one moved from the fire. They noticed him standing there, no doubt looking rather creepy, and all they did was yell at him to move on. Thank the Eight for small mercies.
His luck did not hold though. He crashed through the woods, stumbling into a ring of stones. The middle held a bleached skeleton. It was the live human that was the real issue though. A woman in a black robe turned around quickly, a glow in her hands. Matthias could just make out red face paint around her eyes. Any other situation, he would have gladly bought her a bottle of mead, but he doubted that she would give him that chance. He tried to dart away, but a blast of flames cut off his escape.
“Another subject to experiment with!” The woman almost screeched in glee. “A fresh one at that!”
Chills ran down Matthias’s spine. Acting on instinct, he dashed forward, weaving past a hardened icicle that breezed past his head. The woman let out a burst of bright lightning but Matthias kept on plowing through, trusting in his Breton blood and leather armour to keep him alive. He slammed into the unarmoured woman, throwing her to the ground. She recovered quickly with a snarl, whipping out a dagger. Matthias was quicker though, bringing his axe down straight and true. Feeling disgusted with himself, he pulled himself off the dead woman, downing a stolen stamina potion and continued walking into the night.
***
Rant time again!!!!!!
Oh Angi, how I wish I could have stayed, but I said that this was going to be a thief build, not a stay-at-Angi’s-house-for-the-entire-game build.
Perhaps it will be both.
Anyways, it was at this point that I actually got to do some thieving. I kinda enjoyed playing it this way, having just enough money to barely afford that pair of boots, (I wasn’t kidding, I was literally down to my last seven septims, and without anything extra to sell.) I hope I entertained you with the section about buying. There always seems to be more to it than the game shows, with probably a great deal of bartering and exchanging goods rather than gold. Don’t worry though, I won’t be putting it in every single bloody post, just every now and then.
As for the actual thieving, I found that to be rather fun when approached from a professional point of view. I scoped out the two places, noting locations of the beds and guards in proximity. Falkreath is still a pretty small town though, so it was a good attempt at stealing with minimal stealth ability. Needless to say, both jobs were rather botched, the only clean job I did was stealing from the Jarl.
As for the redguard potions lady, (So many names! So little brain cells in my head!). She actually glitched out when I walked in. I think she noticed me for a second, but she remained in a sleeping state and I went to “unseen”, yet she still started saying different dialogue lines, rather than the simple “You shouldn’t be here!” line for trespassers. That was rather weird, but no matter.
My escape from the city was met with equally unfortunate luck. A thief approached me and I was actually rather stunned at that. I was even more stunned when I approached a bandit camp and all they did was tell me to go away. It’s still hard to build a proper “wussy” thief. Part of me wants to draw my axe and unleash cruel death on everyone, but then I remember that my dude is a squishy little sneak thief, not a hardened Nord warrior, breaking off axe blades by twisting them with his abs.
Then of course I ran into a rather cute looking necromancer who was determined to add me to her collection of skeletons.
All in all, it was a rather bad day for my thief. I still haven’t figured out how to sell my stolen goods, but I almost want to console the Speech perks in that allow me to invest in a merchant and then make them my fence. If so, I have no doubt that my fence will be Belathor, my fellow Breton and a rather shifty dude at that. Anyways, his adventure continues, but it will continue in the next blog. I really have no idea how this character is going to turn out. As for now though, I actually want to leave the Thief Guild alone for now and focus on being a solo thief for a bit, (Say what? A thief without the guild? That is blasphemy my son!) Yeah, well deal with it! My first character in Skyrim hit 100 pickpocketing before level 30 (And this is my more morally upright character) yet was level 50 before ever setting foot in Riften.
On a rather random note, Riften is a very pretty city. The guards even wear a nice purple with their armour for crying out loud! I do wonder if the water that runs through the city stinks. If it is sewage, then that adds a whole new grossness to the city, but I’m pretty sure it’s just water.
