Had myself a merry old thieving time today, with some very bizarre events. Opened up the next Thieves’ Guild quest, which was to steal a ring from the Countess of Leyawiin. After chatting with some beggars and her handmaiden, it seemed there was a secret entrance into Her Lady’s private quarters from the basement of Castle Leyawiin. I was also told she goes to bed at 11pm.
So I found the secret passage, and came upon the final door before entering the living quarters. I waited (literally – you can’t “fast wait” when trespassing) until 11.30pm. I saved my game, and then opened the door, whereupon I was instantly set about by the handmaiden, who tried to kill me. Oops. Reload.
Waited until midnight. Opened the door, and managed to make it to the Countess’ quarters. The Count was in bed, and woke the instant I rifled through the jewelry box, taking a ring. He attacked me, but I spoke to him, and he calmed down. Then instantly attacked me again. So I yielded again. Again, he attacked me. I decided to do a runner, and bumped into a guard, who then tried to arrest me. Gah! Reload.
Waited until 12.30. Opened the door, and instantly the Countess attacked me. I yielded, and all was well. Used an invisibility potion, went into her quarters, nicked the ring, and then set out back to the secret passage. By then, I was visible again, and the Countess and her handmaiden attacked me. In trying to yield to them both, they ended up punching each other instead of me. It was fun to watch them fight until a guard came in to defend the Countess from the handmaiden. At least, that was he was supposed to do, but another stray punch caused the guard to attack the Countess. Then the Count joined in, but was instantly knocked unconscious (certain characters can’t be killed) when he attacked the guard and the guard retaliated, so I thought I’d best to leave. Ran through the secret passage unhindered, and reached the castle main hall. The Countess legged it past me, followed by a guard. She then attacked another guard at the main castle entrance, and another guard shot arrows at her. Eventually, she was knocked unconscious. Throughout all of this, the guards just said stuff like “Well met!” to me, and didn’t attack or arrest me at all.
I then realised that the ring I had stolen wasn’t the ring I needed! The Countess couldn’t have gotten round to taking it off yet. I tried to search her body, but she then came to, and ran off as the handmaiden appeared and tried to kill her again. I ran after the Countess, noting that she had four arrows stuck in her arse, until she went through a locked door. Reload.
Waited until 2am. Surely everyone would be asleep by now, yes? No. There was a guard behind the door. Reload.
He was still there at 2.30. And 3am. And 3.30.
Sod it, I thought. He has to die. So I killed him. Then the Count and Countess set about trying to kill me, but their blows caused virtually no damage so I just wandered past them and nicked the right ring from the jewelry box. Yielded to the Countess, who was happy to stop attacking, but the yield/fight/yield thing went on again with the Count. I summoned a Skeleton Guard to deal with him, and ran off. Halfway out of the castle, I was told the Count has been knocked unconscious, so I feared the wraith of the guards when I left the secret passage. Luckily, they just Well met’ed me, and all was fine.
I was then supposed to see the woman who I’d stolen the ring for, but instead went to Bravil to see S’krivva. This was a partial mistake, as although I completed the quest and it was closed (albeit with a 1000 gold blood price for killing the guard), I still have the ring. I can’t drop it, sell it, put it in a cupboard, or even give it to whom it is supposed to go to. At least it weighs nothing, I suppose. Anyway – 10 Gamerpoints, another Achievement, and I’m now a Prowler of the Thieves’ Guild. ACE!
With that done, I had to fence some more stuff. To do that, I went back to see the Orc in his bookshop in Leyawiin, and nicked more books and some silverware he had lying around his shop. Some of it was stolen from right under his nose. The idiot. Then it was back to S’krivva in Bravil, who sent me to the Imperial City. Something was going down at the waterfront – everyone was under house arrest, Heterogeneous Lex (or whatever his name is) had the place in lockdown trying to find the Grey Fox. Met up with Methredhel in a house, who explained the plan to get Lex out of the waterfront.
My part of the plan was to sneak into the Arcane University (made much easier by being a member, I’ll bet) and nick the Arch-Mage’s Icestaff. Easy. Especially with some invisibility potions! After that, I had to find Lex and watch him until he left the waterfront. Finally, I had to return the staff, by dumping it in a house.
Excellent – I’m now a Cat Burglar!
I’ve still got the ring in my inventory, I think I stole it back afterwards. Maybe. Anyway, I can now neither equip or sell it, but I could swear I could equip it for a bit…. As for invisibility, I got both the ring and the ice staff whilst fully visible (well, apart from sneaking), it’s all about timing!