In Which Ysani Becomes Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild

Critical Thieves Guild activity in this session! First and foremost: got officially proclaimed Guildmaster. But I also formalized getting the Khajiit to work with the Guild, and launched my campaign to get the rest of the Stones of Barenziah!

Meanwhile, did a lot of building at Heljarchen Hall, and got my Smithing up to 100 and unlocked Dragon smithing!

Highlights

• Play date: 3/2/2022
• Session number in this run: 37
• Set out from Lakeview on foot with Algis; Whirlwind-Sprinted all the way to and then past Riverwood
• Killed en route: one cave bear, three wolves, another single wolf
• Saw dragon flying overhead but did not engage because overloaded
• Made it to the meadery; sold a bunch of weapons and armor to Mallus
• Came back out again, and two necromancers attacked for revenge for Malyn Varen
• Boinged to Markarth to check in with Endon; gave him his silver mold back and got him on board with being a fence
• Back to Riften! And hey guess what Argis did I mention I’m taking over the Thieves Guild? Watch my back in the Ratway mmkay?
• Yay i’m the Guildmaster! Got the armor and the Amulet of Articulation
• Went back topside and boinged to Heljarchen to start building stuff
• Did a little bit of smithing work; made it to 100 in Smithing 🤩
• Sent Argis home to Markarth because imminent thieving business
• Snuck down the plains to get in a little bit of shooting practice and fill a soul gem or two
• Made it into Whiterun; sold a bunch of stuff, bought more materials
• Stopped on the way out to talk to Ri’saad, and get him on board with supporting the guild by giving him Tonilia’s moon sugar
• Headed towards Heljarchen only HI ELDER DRAGON; fought it with Nightingale Bow + two storm atronachs; got it safely killed
• Closer to Heljarchen, near Halted Stream, got jumped by cultists; took them out with dremora
• Made it safely back to Heljarchen; not much I could do there though till I have a steward and until I level up again
• Boinged to Riften to check in with Tonilia; got her payment for arrangements with Ri’saad
• Did a little alchemy at the Guild alchemy table
• Headed out on foot to try to find Kharjo and give him his amulet back
• Killed two bears just south of Shor’s Stone
• Found Kharjo’s group of Khajiit! So gave him his amulet
• Killed another bear on the way back to Riften
• Leveled up to 55; took Dragon smithing perk 🤩
• Also got attacked by frostbite spider just as three Imperials and a prisoner were coming close; Imperials shot at the spider for me, but I’d already killed it
• A fox of all things attacked me close to Riften’s back gate; probably impacted by a spriggan? I found one not long thereafter, and got a total of three foxes attacking me in quick succession
• Boinged back to Heljarchen to pick up materials; didn’t have enough iron and leather to make dragonscale stuff yet
• Hoofed it back down to Whiterun by way of Whirlwind Sprint + drawn bow + sneaking
• Mined iron and corundum veins
• Passed an Imperial courier just as I was fighting off a couple of wolves
• Bought more iron and leather in Whiterun; made some dragon stuff! Several weapons, but couldn’t finish out the dragonscale armor set yet, I will need more dragon bits
• Did assorted shopping
• Stopped in at Breezehome, and hi Lucia! Hi doggo!
• Dropped off several things to get inventory weight down
• Boinged to Lakeview to get Lydia to replenish the log supply
• Boinged back to Heljarchen to build! Got the main house structure up and several of its furnishings
• Boinged to Riften
• Arrived at night so snuck into the keep; went invisible right in the throne room and snuck past all the guards to get into the Jarl’s bedchamber; yoinked the Stone of Barenziah and left her 1,000 septims; Shadowcloak of Nocturnal to get back out, to make damn sure I’d make it to the front door
• Headed over to pop into the Bee and Barb to have opening conversation with Louis Letrush for the Promises to Keep plot
• Agreed to go talk to Sibbi Black-Briar for him
• Hi there Riften jail guard! Why yes, I am authorized to come in here, said the Guildmaster wearing the Amulet of Articulation
• Hey Sibbi, what’s this about a deal to sell Louis a horse you don’t own? Okay fine, I’ll go do this for you
• Noted Threki the Innocent on the way out, character I’d never seen before, and she spawned outside her cell? 🤨
• While I was in there, made a point of visiting Brand-Shei since i was responsible for his being thrown into jail to begin with
• Got his quest to find a clue about his background, by way of an unspoken apology
• Since it’s because of a game bug that he’s still in jail I will take the liberty of assuming a headcanon where I, in my capacity as Guildmaster, bribe the guards to let him the fuck out
• Saved for the night

Commentary

With Lydia and Iona now both having volunteered to be stewards for two of the three built properties, I kind of like that this gives me the opportunity to have some of the other housecarls follow me around for a while! I think Argis may wind up being my housecarl of choice for a bit, even though I find Markarth a bit inconvenient and out of the way to get to. I’ll have to play with figuring out where to tell him to stand guard if I have him following me while I’m trying steal any further Stones of Barenziah!

Thievery activity, anyway, was the main point of the session. I observed during Merawen’s run that the Guild was very nonchalant about the change in leadership (i.e., “hey, is she Guildmaster? Yep, she sure is Guildmaster! Okay everybody, back to work!”), and that was certainly the case here. Now I have the Guildmaster’s armor, as well as the Amulet of Articulation. So yay! I’m off the hook for having to do random thievery jobs.

I am not, however, off the hook for the rest of the Stones! So after getting set up as Guildmaster, I commenced my campaign to get the rest of those.

Found it super easy to sneak into Mistveil Keep after hours, thanks to that Invisibility spell. I strode openly into the throne room, but then went invisible right in there, so you’d think the guards who saw me come in would be all ‘wait wait wait where’d she go?’ Not so much. 😉

I went right past a few more guards–close enough to pickpocket one, even, though I didn’t think of it at the time–and up into the Jarl’s bedroom. Got the stone, left her 1,000 septims, and got out again! Used the Shadowcloak of Nocturnal to make damn sure I’d get out safely. Mischief managed!

And that led me to launch the Promises to Keep quest, talking to Louis Letrush and finding out about his conspiracy with Sibbi Black-Briar to steal the horse Frost. Got that plot underway, but only far enough along to have the initial conversations.

Main difference this time through, as compared to Merawen’s run, was seeing the unfamiliar character Threki the Innocent in the Riften Jail. And this surprised me for two reasons:

1. Didn’t recognize the character at all, she was totally new to me
2. She was outside her cell, which is apparently a known bug with her

Basically, I saw this blonde woman just standing there in front of a cell, so I was all “uh who’s this then?” Looked her up on the wiki, and learned that she’s apparently been thrown into the Riften jail because of publicly denouncing Ulfric Stormcloak. Which absolutely makes me wish I could break her out, and smuggle her out of Riften! But apparently there’s no opportunity for the player to actually do anything but exchange a few lines of dialogue with her.

And uh, yeah, guards? Y’all might wanna check the locks on those cell doors. Just sayin’.

Last but not least, since I was visiting the jail anyway, made a specific point of checking on Brand-Shei. As expected, he was still in jail, even though in theory he should have been released a week in game time after I caused him to be arrested. As noted above, really wish I had some in-game way of getting him out of there! Failing that, I will at least do his quest for him!

Language commentary

Interesting terms observed:

• Maître de la Guilde: Guildmaster (lit. “master of the guild”)
• Threki l’Innocente: Threki the Innocent

Next time

Gotta steal me a horse! But, like, y’know, discreetly, because pissing off Maven Black-Briar is not exactly wise.

Screenshots

Editing to add

• 11/21/2023: Restored missing gallery, and added play date and session number markers.