JoS/Henriette/28th Journal - Bandits and Thieves

First Seed, 21st, 4E 203

It's been two weeks of peace and quiet. I was looking forward to it, but now that I think of it, I also had time off before I set off on my quest to defeat Alduin. As much as I enjoy this carefree life every now and then, it does get boring after a while. Boring isn't too exciting, but it's good for you every now and then. Excitement may not be so good for you all the time but that hasn't stopped me in the past, and danger can be fun.

I've been waiting for an excuse to get my ass out of these mountains though, and today I got it. A courier gave me two letters. First one is from Madanach, and it stated that he knows about what I did in Deepwood Redoubt, about how I have messed with his plans for the last time, and about how he swears to hunt me down. I requested the courier to send him a letter back, to which I included an insult, a small taunt if you will. It took me a while, but inside the envelope I slid in a crude drawing of a stick figure eating a sack full of dicks, with an arrow pointing at the figure accompanied with the word "you". It's probably not the most graceful of responses I could've given him, but I like the idea of him foaming at his mouth being mad at me.

Ah, this could be part of that reading which Olava gave me, I think…? Well, I'm sure nothing too horrible is going to come out of it. Just need to be careful and stay on top of my toes whenever I visit areas where Forsworn are active.

The second letter was from none other than Delvin Mallory, the old sly fox with the Thieves Guild. I'm not going to say everything it had written on it, but a gist of it is that there's been some interesting developments within the guild, and that they're looking to expand. He said that while he and the rest understand that I haven't been that involved with them in a long time, they're looking to rekindle their relationship with me. There are a lot of jobs to be done, and a lot of money to be made. He even has a job ready for me.

In case you're wondering, why contact someone who's more suited to assassination and murder instead of some active member of the guild who would maybe even appreciate a job offer like this? Well, that's because this isn't really a job for your conventional "thief". There will be "killing involved", and when it comes to that, there's no one better in Thieves Guild than me. Besides, he said it wouldn't hurt for us to visit them every now and then to "rejoin" the Thieves Guild. Sure, I've never been gone on paper, but my absence has been very noticeable.

Anyway, the Guild has a bit of a problem with rivals in Eastmarch. There's some new guild of wanna-be Thieves who are also involved in crimes involved with things that are considered unacceptable behavior here in this guild; things like rape, murder, stealing from the dead… Why does this concern us? Well, the rumors are spreading around pretty quickly and it's also affecting the business here in Riften. Their base of operations which is somewhere near Windhelm isn't too far from ours after all. There's also a great opportunity here for the Thieves Guild to expand north as well, which is something that they haven't been able to do in decades, not while Mercer was too busy running the guild to the ground.

The contract is someone named Torsten Cruel-Sea. I've heard that name before. He's kind of a big deal I think? He's the head of one of the wealthier families in Windhelm, owns some profitable farm or something, I don't know. He might know something about this guild of rivals and where they're hiding. Delvin suggests that I should go meet up with him immediately. No need for me to visit Riften first, as Torsten will fill me in with details. Delvin promises me that the pay is good, so I'll leave for my job tomorrow after getting some good day's sleep.

Serana is coming too. She plans on visiting the College so we'll be traveling towards the same direction. Sofia is already out on some personal business, so she can't come. Aliya won't be coming either, and probably won't join me on any adventure in a long, long while. Well, I don't expect her to… I'll honor her wish of trying to focus on studying magic. She seems to have a reason beyond just hunt for power for why she continues to study despite unquestionably being one of the greatest magisters alive, but she hasn't specified anything. Well, it doesn't matter to me, as it's beyond my grasp anyway.

First Seed, 22nd, 4E 203

I learned that Torsten had his daughter Fjolti kidnapped by these savages that call themselves thieves. Sounds more like Banditry to me than Thievery. Torsten personally just wants to get his daughter back, which I'm more than happy to help him with. He couldn't offer too much of help to me regarding how to contact these Bandits or where they could be hiding but fortunately, he could point me towards a woman who knows.

Her name is Niranye. She's an Altmer street vendor here in Windhelm and sells assorted goods and wares. Local Nords seem to treat her pretty well as opposed to the Argonians and Dunmer, but that's not really my business so I'll leave that commentary at that.

I asked her about Fjolti and she pretended not to know anything at first. However, after realizing that I'm only here to help, I learned that they actually used to be friends before, she was pressured into betraying her or something. I didn't learn all the details, but she's really sad about it, thinks about it daily, regretting it, also fearing for her own safety. She basically has to do whatever she's told, act as their fence unwillingly to buy their stolen goods and even sell it forward on her stall, all that stuff. Niranye seems really scared for her own safety and feels that in due time she will either find herself serving a similar fate to Fjolti as a captive slave, or locked in Windhelm prison for the crimes she has been forced to commit.

All the members of this rival guild are apparently her fellow High Elves and call themselves the Summerset Shadows, and Niranye blew the whistle on the location of their hideout. Since I now know where they reside, I might as well pay them a visit, and since Delvin already has given me the permission to kill, well… It won't be a friendly visit. Niranye suggested to wait until morning to strike to hit them when they're most vulnerable, a tip I'll gladly follow…

As I'm sure I'll be fine alone, Serana will be continuing north towards Winterhold for work there.

First Seed, 23rd, 4E 203

Alright, so I had been to that cave before. It used to be used by some Bandits to smuggle Skooma. I got raped pretty hard the last time around by that one Nord there when I was just a newbie. Ahh, memories…

Just as Niranye said, these Bandits were all Altmer. Like seriously, I've never seen that many yellow-skinned elves in one place. And yes, I will call them Bandits instead of proper thieves because they don't have a shred of originality or business sense to them. They took this old lair from other Bandits and they even wear a copy of Riften's Thieves Guild's armor, which is made from grey leather instead of brown. What a bunch of losers!

The tip of assaulting them early in the morning proved out to be a good one too, as I managed to take many of them out before they even noticed that they had an intruder. How exactly was I discovered? Well, I'm not sure how he saw me, or how he managed to catch me off guard, but he was stupid enough not to go for a kill, and instead opted to grope my chest and groin areas. I would be lying if I didn't say he wasn't good with his hands, but ultimately, he was an idiot. All he got from me was a moan, angry squeal and a dagger through his neck. Serves him right for underestimating me. You really have to be a lot rougher if you want to subdue me.

At that point though, due to the noise I had made, the whole place was alert. Their leader was someone called Linwe and he was so graciously urging me to surrender quietly and they'd go easy on me. Honestly, I thought I was screwed because I was in the middle of their camp and who knew how many enemies I had. Lucky for me, they were really weak! Like, killing them in their sleep was barely harder than killing them on their feet! Linwe proved himself to be a little bit of a challenge and probably would've had a good chance of beating me if it wasn't for the fact that he was so out of it all considering that he was the only man left in the whole stinking cave…

He actually tried to run away, but I wasn't going to let him. I pinned him down and put my dagger to his neck, asking him about the prisoners. He was screaming, literally screaming like an old hag about how they're kept in the back room, all three of them. He begged me to let him live, said that he'd promise to leave Skyrim for good and turn new leaf elsewhere if I'd just let him live.

Oh, but this is the path you chose honey… Live by the sword, die by the sword… I sunk my teeth to his flesh and felt him flop like a pathetic fish as warmth drained away from his skin and flesh.

All of his captives were Nords, but sadly, when I asked about their names, I realized that Fjolti wasn't with them anymore. Apparently, she tried to escape one night and was subsequentially killed as an example for the other girls. After freeing the prisoners, I searched around for any possible proof I could bring back to Torsten about his daughter. In the end, I found this clue from a jail cell with a horrible scene inside of it.

Her body was left to be eaten by dogs they've kept as pets. Wild huskies, to be specific. All that was left of her was bone and decomposed flesh and other organs. The smell was putrid, but I approached the harrowing sight anyway. She didn't have anything on her, but I did find a silver pendant in her cell, hidden under a pillow. Luckily, this was enough proof for Torsten.

When he saw me return, he was asking about his daughter, and when I handed him the pendant, he understood that he was never going to see her again. It was actually a family heirloom that had been passed down to her, one of a kind amulet, but not otherwise special in any way. It was clear that he was holding back his tears, and I wouldn't have blamed him for crying. Regardless, he thanked me for my service. He had a small reward for me, which was a little underwhelming to be honest. I was expecting more. He did say though that Thieves Guild will have his support here in Windhelm, which is probably the more significant reward here considering his vast influence.

As for Niranye, she was very glad and thankful to me too, although also very sad that she had lost her precious friend. Regardless, she doesn't have to worry about her own life anymore. She also revealed that she's been working with the Thieves Guild as a fence in the past but left the guild some years ago when it seemed like it was going down the gutter. Now though, she's more than happy to offer her services to us again. I'm sure she'll be welcomed back into the guild with open arms too.

Now, all that's really left for me is to visit Riften to bring some good news to them. It's been such a long time since I've visited that place… I hope they're all doing well.

First Seed, 24th, 4E 203

So much for reaching Riften. I found a lair of Bandits so interesting I felt a strong urge to approach it, but ended up making a terrible mistake in doing so.

It started with me approaching the bouncer outside along with some cages with wolves. Poachers, I thought. There was a skinning rack too, so maybe they also skin and butcher them. I recognized the bouncer as none other than Azzy. You know, the Dunmer I met some weeks back in Windhelm. I thought he was supposed to join the Thieves Guild, and so I asked him about it.

"I met an old friend on the road", he explained. "I was lured in by Skooma. The good stuff, imported from Morrowind, comes both cheap and easy." He was eventually hired here, so he got the work he was looking for in Windhelm, except instead he got it here in backwater woods in the middle of nowhere. The pay sucks, but it's right about the best job he could hope for as a Bandit. Guards don't care about this place, although the activities are far from legal here.

They organize illegal pit fights here, usually between wolves, but getting adventurers and slaves to the pit is common as well. There's usually a lot of gambling and mead involved too in addition to the harder drugs. They even have those pipes that are used for smoking Moon Sugar, popular in Morrowind and Elsweyr. There's apparently this whole organization here in the borderlands of Rift and Eastmarch, and this is just one of three locations people like to gather in. Admitetly, this is the least important of the locations. Bigger events are being held in a castle called Faldar's Tooth north of lake Honrich as well as Lost Knife Cave on the southwestern areas of Eastmarch. That's actually close to where I live. I've hunted there a couple of times… Huh, I never knew those guys near the entrance are actually bouncers. They must be pretty confused about how they get killed every now and then without the attacker ever leaving trace.

Anyway, he said that since this is actually a bar, or a Skooma den, I would be free to visit this place, as long as I wouldn't do so alone. "I will have to accompany you", he said.

Now, you might be wondering, where oh where did I make the mistake I alluded to earlier? Did I get a little crazy, a little wild and ended up drinking Skooma? Nope! Azzy, that son of a bitch stabbed me in the back and led me to be assaulted by his friends. They raised their swords to my neck and tied me up subsequently because I wasn't able to defend myself against a surprise attack. They were tapping their bouncer on his back and telling him "good job" and such, saying "it's been a while since we've had a new one". They were also complimenting me on my size and how cute I am.

Now they have me chained inside a cage like some animal, and just as the luck would have it, I'm all alone on this journey, and my friends probably don't have a slightest clue about my whereabouts… So as far as escaping goes, I may be on my own. They haven't decided what to do with me yet, but I can't imagine it being anything pleasant.

First Seed, 25th, 4E 203

"Nothing pleasant" doesn't quite cut the experience I was put through. They had a show for a night and I was set to be part of an exhibition event. It was meant to be purely for fun, not really any kind of fair fight meant for anyone to gamble on.

As my opponent I had a forest troll. It was clearly juvenile, smaller than most of the trolls you come across in the wilds, but trolls are stronger than adult humans even as babies. Since they threw me into the ring with a troll unarmed and naked, do I even have to say how I fared? It wasn't even a fight. I tried to dodge its attacks, succeeded with first, but got knocked down on second. Less than ten seconds was all it took, but I wasn't about to become troll food. The beasts here are trained for other purposes.

The troll mounted me and raped me, played me like a fiddle in the middle of a two dozen patrons watching and laughing at my helpless state. Despite being beasts, trolls are kind of similar to humans in mannerism, but just multiple times stronger. I had no way of defending myself or escaping. I could just be there are take his massive girth deep into me over and over again.

What about troll's regenerative abilities? Well, let's just say, they're never done with their mates after just one round. They had probably drugged it too to make sure it would just focus on fucking me instead of mauling me to death. It took over thirty minutes of continuous bestial rape before the Bandits had to physically remove the beast from me. After that, they dragged my limp body to be washed. My day of labor wasn't done.

While rest of the show was going on, the Bandits proceeded to whore me out. I was one of three captives there, but the only child. The event of having troll fuck me was mainly meant to rile patrons up to make them interested in parting their money to do me. Based on the amount of men that paid to rape me, I guess their plan was a success.

The rent for my pussy was dirt cheap. Twenty drakes for vaginal ejaculation? That's cheaper than mead in some places! Prostitution is very cheap, but that's just an insult to sex workers all over Tamriel. I think I served about fifteen customers over the span of next four hours. I was just so done, still am… Having Bandits and other lowlife use me like that didn't even feel that satisfying to me. Most of them couldn't make me cum at all. The worst was some poor farmhand too who probably couldn't hurt a rabbit kept banging me while simultaneously talking about how he's been dreaming about doing a girl as young as me… He came in less than two minutes, which I suppose made things little easier to me, but I could barely feel him.

Now I'm in my cage again with some food and water.

The odds are quite stacked against me, but there aren't too many of them, and they aren't that strong or experienced either. I'm confident I can escape somehow, but how? That's the big question. I know for sure I won't be able to escape this cage. The lock is too sturdy to be picked and out of my reach anyway. Damn it, I might have to go through few more days like this before I figure a way out.