Zane wasn't happy. He was irritated. And lost. And close to call the Dark Brotherhood.
The reason of this sour dive of his mood was that he FOUND where the object he seeks MIGHT be but effectively out of any reach at the moment. Especially now that he got a high priority job on his hand. Leading him back to Whiterun.
Normally he would be happy to take that chance of spending time with his love Saphire but since Marven herself was the one conducting said job, it's rather a poor idea to waste time. So his general idea was: Get in, do what he is told. And get the hell out of it before anybody recognizes him. And make the hell sure Saphire doesn't catch wind of it. He wouldn't put it past her to wreck half of Riften just to get her claws on him for not visiting her!
It's one thing being a thief but indirectly responsible for the damages of the town? And most likely the damages on Marven's properties? He would rather get eaten by a dragon than having to deal with what FOLLOWS after those events.
Right now he was wandering along a mountain path that allowed him to come from the northeast direction to Whiterun. While it was taking a bit longer, his chances of being seen by people who know him are lower in return.
And he wondered what happened to the bandits that lived in that tower... while not being in best of terms, these bandits at least, had a deal with the Thieves Guild to not bother their members. And now he only found corpses. Most of them ravaged by wild animals.
Did the Jarl finally send in soldiers to get rid of them? Or did they piss off the wrong guy?
No reason to speculate. Just a mental note to report it later when he is back in Riften. This means after all until the next set of bandits came, they are free to use that road again. Just need a solid reason why he used that road in the first place. And his girlfriend doesn?t count.
Once in Whiterun, he goes straight to the Honeybrew Meadery and went to the backside of the building, where he should find his contact.
Maven Black-Briar had sent him off to not only put the Meadery out of business but to find out how it could be such a successful business in such a short time. Both not easy and only possible with the help of a guy named Mallus Maccius. And indeed the Imperial man was standing there and drank some meat. Once he notices the Purple Umbreon he asks "Are you send by them?"
``Yes I am.'' answered Zane ``I take you can now tell me how I get rid of this for our shared boss?''
``Yes. I am going to make it short: Honningbrew?s owner, Sabjorn, is about to hold a tasting for Whiterun?s Captain of the Guard and we?re going to poison the mead."
NOt like the idea of poisoning ANYBODY in Whiterun for a reason that bears an ice and dark type combination he still asked: "And you got already the poison?"
"No, no. That?s the beauty of the whole plan. We?re going to get Sabjorn to give it to us. The meadery has quite a pest problem and the whole city knows about it. Pest poison and mead don?t mix well, you know what I mean? You?re going to happen by and lend poor old Sabjorn a helping hand. He?s going to give you the poison to use on the pests, but you?re also going to dump it into the brewing vat. Maven and I spent weeks planning this. All we need is someone like you to get in there and get it done. Now get going before Sabjorn grows a brain and hires someone else to do the dirty work."
``And why do we have to bother with the pest problem?"
"Once Sabjorn is out of the way, Maven has plans for this place. One way or another, we don?t want the pests coming back. Consider it just more of the dirty work. I did my part getting them in there, now you need to clear them out." Then he explained further "Both of the buildings are connected by tunnels made by the pests infesting the meadery. There?s an entrance to it in the basement storeroom of the warehouse that used to be boarded over. I?ve already removed the boards so the meadery would get infested. That?s where you should start."
``And I take I cannot just break in?''
``The lock is one of the best you could find. If you manage to get through that without being caught or running out of time, be my guest.'' countered the Imperial
"I get it," said Zane and didn?t bother to ask what happens with the Honeybrew... it was obvious either that guy or one of Maven's other trusted goons get the control of it.
"THen I am going to find Sabjorn and get that job," said Zane
``Don't fail here. Or Maven has your pelt.'' warned the Imperial before turning around and leaves.
Zane was holding his throat a bit to get this knot in there off. Then he went for the main door to find Sabjorn... and this Nord was luckily not hard to find.
"Good day," said Zane
"What do you want?" he asks Can?t you see I have problems here?" Asking him about the problem will make him explain: "Are you kidding me? Look at this place. I?m supposed to be holding a tasting of the new Honningbrew Reserve for the Captain of the Guard. If he sees the meadery in this state, I?ll be ruined."
"Than how about I help you?" asks Zane catching the Nords interest
"Oh really? And I don?t suppose you?d just do it out of the kindness of your heart, would you? I hope you?re not expecting to get paid until the job?s done."
"Don?t worry. Just get my payment ready once I am done."
"I bought some poison. I was going to have my lazy, good-for-nothing assistant Mallus handle it, but he seems to have vanished. If you plant this in the vermin?s nest, it should stop them from ever coming back."
Taking the poison, he nods and heads off to the basement and goes down... and finds the Vermins. SKewers and Rattatas. Lovely... wild Rattatas. So Zane had in doubt the choice of getting infections from the Skewer or lost fingers from the Rattatas. ``I wonder how this infection came to... Rattatas don't like Skewers normally. Not to mention the last wild Rattata infection known to Skyrim was a decade ago.''
And instead got his daggers out with a loud sigh before jumping down and quickly slashed the big rats? throats and body in quick succession before they had a chance to register his presence properly or counter-attack.
Shaking his head he keeps moving into the cave that should connect that room with his goal. Well... at least it was promising for now. Until he stopped. Egg sacks. of Spiders. Frost spiders. Groaning in his mind he knew what this means. He has to kill these spiders. Crunching down he keeps on sneaking forward and got his dagger ready for killing any of these giant bugs he might encounter.
Finding these buggers he did. But they were already killed. But given the numbers and size of spiders and the numbers of still rotting rattatas and skeevers, the Umbreon notes that it must be quite a battle that happened underground. Which makes him even wonder more what is going on down here.
And his answer came form of a larger cave. A cave filled with Skeevers and rattatas. And a rambling voice. ``A madman they called me! Beating up they did! Kicked me out! Pah! Soon they are seeing the errors of their ways but then it will be too late to apologize! Skyrim will suffer under my terror! My Poisonfang Skewers and Poisonfang Rattatas will be the terror of Skyrim! Not a single house will be saved! NOt a single street! Not a single room! HAHAHAHAHAHAH!" and upon creeping carefully, he saw a large black raticate standing in front of some alchemy equipment.
He thought about this and recalls something from a trip to the Winterhold college... and recalls that he heard during his heist about a crazy student that was forced to throw into the prisons of both Whiterun and Winterhold... but those were ten years ago. And now he is here.
Retreating a bit, the purple Umbreon thought about is options. The biggest issue was he got a lot of rats to pass by or even better to kill for the long run plans of Maven but also that crazy guy. On the other hand, he is alone against an army. Not to mention he is also kind in a hurry so he has to get things going.
Then he recalled something. Something he was given by Myst. Reaching in his pouch, he starts looking in there. and found soon what he was looking for: Darts and a blowpipe to send them flying.
He thought carefully which dart colour stood for what and once he did, he loaded the first into the pipe and looked around carefully to where he should shoot this first dart... and he found a fitting one. Aiming carefully he guides the pipe to his mouth... and took a deep breath... before pushing air through it and send the dart flying. HItting the Rattata in the neck. The mammal was looking confused at first from the sudden sting in the neck and turned around to try and find the reason for this.
Zane shot a few more of those darts to skeever and rattata and as he had only two of the ones he shot were left he watched. And the first he hit began to act strangely as the contents of the darts start to show their effect.
At first, the other rodents are looking in wonder as their kind acted oddly, moving bizarre and as they were influenced by something. Before they suddenly start biting the closest Rattata or Skeever close to them. And that is where chaos broke out.
The rattatas and Skeevers began to fight each other. First, only those who were hit by the darts, which contained a strong frenzy poison but due to the confusion between them, they also attacked those not affected, making it an all versus all fight. "What is going on?" shouts the Raticate and as he saw what is going on he shrieks "Stop right now! You?re not to fight each other! But to terrorize Whiterun! Stop fighting!"
However, the vermins, in their collective frenzy start attacking their master as well and he had no chance but to retaliate with his own moves and magic. Zane took note that he got Alteration, Destruction and healing spells... and needs to shut down somehow the last one to prevent him from being healthy enough to try and find out what happened.
Thought that is one of the reasons why Zane kept the last two darts ready... and loaded them... and shot. The second hit one random Ratata but the second one hits the radicate in the hand. he looked at it at the pain but soon ignored it as one of the Ratata bit his feet and he was paying his attention back to the fighting... while joining the frenzy as the poison did its job.
It took Zane?s willpower to not laugh at this display and waits for that fight out. Once it was over, he saw that some are still alive but thanks to those wounds he doubts that many survive or at least move for a while. Making his way through the bodies, past the Raticate, that laid unmoving on his stomach, he makes to the nest... or nests as he discovered.
Applying the poison he used far more than planned and was only left with a bit. Barely enough for the meat but should do the job. As he holds the bottle of the remaining poison in the hand, he heard a loud ``You!''
Quickly he turned around and saw the Raticate standing once more, snarling "You killed my beautiful little ones! You ruined everything! RAAH!" and in its anger, he runs on all four against Zane.
The purple Umbreon acted on instinct and hurled the bottle at the Raticate. Who in his fury didn?t realize what came against him in time and the bottle broke in his face, delivering the poison straight there.
HE shouts in pain of the glass and was also soon showing the symptoms of the poison acting in his body as it has entered his thought the cuts, bite wounds, eyes nose and mouth.
Seeing his opponent was as good as dead, Zane sighs in relief and was now unhappy as he realized he had no poison left. Quickly he checked the alchemy but had to admit: He had no plan how to mix something new or which of the ingredients would help him here. He had always bought the potions he might need.
Thought... he got something else. And he hopes it works as intended. Or that whole plan is a bust and his head will roll for it. Moving to the other exit of the cave he made his way and found himself soon in the boilery... and if he had to guess he is standing in front of the Vat with the Mead he is supposed to poison.
Taking a bottle of his own stuff, he moves to the opening and emptied it inside the meat before putting it away and jumps down and went for the door. Now that he had the time to check, he looked at the lock ``Yep. Would be a pain to get that open in time." and then saw them... key hanging beside the door "I always wonder why people do that," grabbed the key and opens the door going, out and locked it behind him. And he happens to see Sabjorn taking care of a few things and went over ``hey!''
Turning around the Nord asks ``Yes?''
"THe vermins are no longer a problem." claimed the purple Umbreon, "Thought I had to use up all the poison".
"That?s not a problem as long they are all gone," told Sabjorn and hands, Zane, a sack of gold "Here! You earned that!"
Thanking him, Zane began to look for his ``partner'' and found him soon ``Got it done. But not like I planned''
``You mean that crazy Raticate? Yeah, I thought you might step back if I did mention him'' and hands Zane a key ``That's to Sabjorns room. There you should find everything Marven could use to find out who helps him. And now go''
``But-'' began Zane
``GO!''
"Fine!" huffed Zane and moves off to the room of Sabjorn. He searched it and found two things: A letter which contents directly to the one backing Sabjorn and a Decanter... knowing his fellow Guild member Delvin, he could sell that to him for a nice sum.
Upon leaving the room, he got to the Meadery and saw the tasting was soon happening. And that Commander Caius was drinking the first cup. ONce he drank it, he became stiff and falls over.
Everybody stared in shock and his ``partner'' shouts ``What the hell? It should be poisoned with Rat poison and not with a Paralyze one!''
Zane took the chance and gets out, of the Honeybrew and moves as fast as he could to the mountain road, not bothering his initial plan to head back to Riften. Because his partner would soon spit out his involvement... but the purple Umbreon knew one thing: If that idiot had let him talk, then he would have known beforehand that instead of rat poison he had to improvise with the only poison he had on hand: Paralyze Poison. And a very potent one on top of it.
Well... for now he cannot get seen in Whiterun for a while. Saphire will be pissed and on top of things, Maven will be pissed.
At least he can tell that it was her partner that screwed up, given that the detail with the paralyze poison would reach her for sure. Zane just hoped he is the one explaining it before other couriers might tell the tale.
