My name is Akatosh,
I slept in Sognard.
——4e, year 201, last seed month, 30th, 2:47——
Surrounded by blue-black stone walls made of heavy and rough stones, what you can see are clumps of vines and gray weeds illuminated by dimly lit torches, parallel to the underground river that always flows to the low-lying areas. I don't know. There are many corridors and crude iron gates that have been in disrepair leading to where.
This is the Rat Pass, a sewer network beneath Rift Valley towns. Its name comes from the disparaging name given to surface dwellers, which roughly means "there are people like rats crawling around in it."
Since there is always flowing water from the underground river in the sewer, there is no special smell except that the air feels a little damp. Otherwise, Parasos would have tried his best to make the princess give up her intention to join the Thieves Guild.
"It is said that Rift Valley City was a border fortress when it was first established. These old underground passages were the underground warehouses, barracks and escape tunnels of the rulers at that time. Therefore, there are many places suitable for living." Brynjolf bowed his waist. Sneak through the rat paths while whispering introductions to Parathos behind you.
"A lot of people choose to live in the sewers?" Although it was late at night, Parasos could still vaguely hear the echoes of curses, laughter and unknown low voices coming from the depths of the rat tunnel. Whisper.
"Unlike other towns that deliberately planned civilian areas, this sewer network is a naturally formed civilian area in Rift Valley City. Those who can live on the surface of the city can basically be regarded as big nobles-the exception is those people in Harjia Gongpeng Datongpu. "The veteran thief continued: "There is a clause in the contract between the Blackthorn Family and the Thieves Guild that 'if a manor on the surface is attacked without permission, the guards have the right to kill the criminal directly'."
"This 'without permission' sounds quite meaningful." Parasos followed Brynjolf around a corner, and the sound of the underground river gradually changed.
"Yes, the Blackthorn Family will update the 'no offense' list they give to the Thieves Guild from time to time. We will have to send people to find some trouble for those 'families that fall off the list'. If they fail to understand this With this hint, the Blackthorn family will issue some more specific 'commissions' that can ensure that those families know what mistakes they have made." Brynjolf's voice was a little helpless.
"This seems different from the Thieves Guild I heard about?" Parasos asked doubtfully.
I heard in the capital province of Cyrodiil that the thieves guild in the inter-province has noble protection in every city. If you just go around, you can find merchants to provide services for selling stolen goods. When caught by the guards during the operation, they said "I am from the guild" "People, can you please be accommodating?" You can leave directly, and every member is extremely rich...completely different from the status quo.
"The apparent reason is that the Imperial Legion and the Stormcloaks are fighting, and both sides have stepped up their pursuit and punishment of criminal acts." Brynjolf took out a piece of thin wire and fiddled with a locked living door. Rusty Iron Gate: "But the actual reason is-this!"
Zheng! At the same time that Brynjolf let go and jumped back, three sharp spears suddenly protruded from the side of the iron door. If he was still there, he would definitely be pierced.
"Try it and you will understand." Brynjolf wiped away his cold sweat and said to Parasos while looking at the slowly retracting spear.
Parasos looked at the hole poked out by the vicious mechanism with vigilance, took Brynjolf's wire and tried to open the lock, "My lock-picking skills are not..."
Click, a thin sound sounded, and the iron door opened in response.
"That's it," Brynjolf shrugged and pushed open the iron door, and said to the somewhat dull Parasos: "A veteran like me can actually stumble into a lock where most of the locks are rusty, and only one hook is needed. Lock the door that can be opened, and this is not an accident but a common occurrence."
Parasos thought of the situation when Princess Emilia wanted to come to Rift Valley City. It was not after Baron Ericul successfully opened the lock and caused trouble for Baron Ghost. It was an old thief who should be very experienced. The moment when the ordinary door with almost no defense in the noble area failed and was surrounded by guards.
"Did you anger a certain Holy Spirit or Demon God?" Parasos asked.
"We have also guessed this, but there is no way that any Holy Spirit will be interested in thieves," Brynjolf sneaked forward to explore the path again: "And there are too many demon gods supporting our actions. If someone accidentally angers someone, The Demon God will not show up specifically to point it out, so we can only make preparations for failure before each action, and recruit new people who have not been affected yet."
"Hmm... I think many newcomers will be scared away after hearing that you have provoked the devil." Newcomer Pali laughed.
"But you didn't run away, that's enough." Brynjolf said casually to increase loyalty, but unfortunately it was of no use to Parasos.
Since Her Highness the Princess wants to join the Thieves Guild, he must follow up. In addition, as she said, "The gods will kill you too," after confirming the involvement of the devil, Parasos must ensure that Emilia will not take it seriously. Go implement it.
"So, about this operation?" As Brynjolf's actions became more cautious, Parasos judged that the target was very close.
"The target is a mercenary named 'Boxer' who lives in the Rat Passage," Brynjolf whispered: "He was hired to assassinate 'Mercy Guillot' in the Hall of Glory, but the other party had been killed in advance by others. He then refused to return his employment payment and prepared to flee Rift Valley, as his original employer wanted his advance commission back."
"Such a shabby commission doesn't sound like something the Blackthorn family can propose." Parathos raised his eyebrows.
"It seems to be a foreign noble named 'Eritino'. Since he comes from Windhelm City, Blackthorn is just a little bit more face-saving. However, after this unscrupulous commission is spread, they will probably be excluded." Not off the 'no offense' list." Brynjolf stopped, and Parasos heard intermittent snoring coming from the corridor ahead.
"It seems like he is very insecure." The sharp-eyed Eagle scout captain looked at the densely packed bear traps on the ground in front of him and smiled.
——2:53——
Deep underground in the Rat Road of Rift Valley City, there is a huge circular square. It is located slightly higher on the side of the southern mountain ridge. A rapid underground river is intercepted there, and the water flows out like a waterfall, and the water After the water pool in the middle of the circular space gathered slightly, it quickly flowed in all directions along the narrow water channels preset on the four walls.
If you can observe it from the outside, it must look like a kettle leaking water everywhere. In fact, this square was indeed named "The Broken Jug" by the thieves guild that occupied it.
Around the reservoir, there is a living and training area that was deliberately built to prevent a sudden increase in the water volume of a certain underground river, and there is even a tavern.
"How was your rest? What's your impression of the big wine pot? We basically work at night, but are we still used to it?" In the corner of the tavern, "Sapphire", one of the two talkative people of the Thieves Guild, was talking to himself - at least It looks like that.
"...Not bad." Emil was holding a donut and biting it, and just nodded slightly.
"I can only say that your talent, which disappears as soon as you look away, is perfect for our profession." Sapphire said, "Although our situation is not very good now, hahaha..."
"...Yeah." The girl blinked in response.
"I told you about the guild's predicament before, let's explain it in a little more detail now." Sapphire saw that Emil was eating happily, so he also took a donut and gnawed on it: "Stealing other people's property 'Traditional activities' are easy to fail, but the new action that Fan and I came up with has no impact, which is 'taking property that does not belong to that person'."
"For example, the ship we sank before, although the 'cedars' nominally belonged to Shad, he didn't know that the wood had turned into tree spirits, so we intercepted the 'tree spirit sap' and the 'upright roots' The behavior was very smooth, if we wanted to take the whole boat away, it would have capsized." Sapphire ate the donut in three mouthfuls, showing an expression of "What's so delicious about this thing?"
"Similarly, if we do things as entrusted by the Blackthorn family, because they are on top to support us, our actions will go very smoothly. However, if we try to create extra problems, we will fail directly. We cannot determine the cause of this phenomenon. We can only Carry out corresponding activities after understanding its rules." Sapphire reached out to get the donuts, but Emil pulled the plate away. It was obvious that Emil was unwilling to interact with Sapphire, who didn't like the taste and just ate casually. She shares dessert.
"Well...for example, stealing personal belongings from a specific person and putting stolen goods into someone's locker are all done by the client in order to throw the items in other people's faces or report them to the guards to threaten them. If we If you exchange items, not only will it fail, but it will also attract revenge from the client." Sapphire spread his hands and picked up an apple.
"But secretly changing the account books, and simply stealing anything with no limit on the target, such as purely troublesome tasks, there are loopholes to exploit. After all, the client cannot know the details of the accounts and what we took specifically. We need to pay attention here. The only thing is that we cannot directly benefit from the victim, but must take advantage of the client when delivering the task. This part is the 'property that did not originally belong to him.'" Sapphire gnawed on the apple.
"...Oh." Emil seemed to understand and blinked his eyes in confusion.
"To take a recent example," Sapphire ate the apple on her hand, wiped her hands and pointed to the anti-bee protection gear and fire starter put aside, "The mission we are about to carry out requires burning down the 'Golden Manor' Thirty percent of the beehives were not taken seriously by the client, and the honey and royal jelly that should have been burned together belong to us."
"...Understood." Emil nodded with bright eyes.
No, she just understood that there would be honey to eat... Sapphire covered her face.
