When we last left our hero, he\u2019d just royally and publically screwed over his boss. Keep in mind that this fellow, despite having just been caught red-handed in the middle of an act of fraud and larceny, has not been demoted or reprimanded in any observable or public fashion. He is, in fact, going to be giving me my next handful of missions.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure this won\u2019t be awkward at all.<\/p>\n
I return to him. I\u2019m half-surprised when he passive-aggressively informs me that he did, in fact, see what I did there\u2026and he doesn\u2019t like it. Chances are good that my next mission is not going to involve eating all of the leftover donuts and breaking in the latest team of ponies.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s better than I\u2019d expect, though. I\u2019m given a mission to locate and retrieve some missing Caldera Mining Company documents. A snoop mission, eh? You know, I\u2019m considered quite the detective back in Balmora. There was this one time where I had to find out who killed this guy\u2026man, I was all over that action. Within minutes of talking to the nearby witness who\u2019d gotten a good look at the killer, I knew exactly what the killer looked like and what kind of weapon he was using. Within mere hours of tracking down the killer, I\u2019d managed to trick him into denying his guilt. They call me Cahmel, and I\u2019m a private eye. Gets to be times where a man\u2019s cheap blade and hideous hat are his only friends in the world, and that\u2019s the time where you have to take any case that comes into your quest log.<\/p>\n
These were the facts I had to work with:<\/p>\n
1.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Someone was stealing the Caldera mining ledgers.<\/p>\n
2.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This person was probably not a Dwemer.<\/p>\n
3.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s because the Dwemer are extinct.<\/p>\n
4.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I figured that one out on my own. In case you were wondering.<\/p>\n
5.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It probably wasn\u2019t me.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s it. Seriously, I had no idea where to begin on this one.<\/p>\n
So I started walking around town, interviewing various dudes and asking if they\u2019d seen my ledgers. The answer was a polite, uniform no. Okay, so, clearly I\u2019d have to step up my game.<\/p>\n
Ah! Who\u2019d know the skinny on the locals? Why, the innkeeper, of course.<\/p>\n
The bar at Shenk\u2019s Shovel smelled like cheap brandy and expensive regrets. I slid into my usual chair.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you know about the stolen Caldera mining ledgers?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUh. Nothing? I\u2019m an inkeeper.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t give me that innocent \u2018all I do is sell food and room keys\u2019 act,\u201d I snarled. \u201cI know what kind of joint you\u2019re running here. What do you think the odds are that if I started breaking open a few boxes\u2026\u201d I casually kicked open a crate. \u201cOh, look, what do we have here? Why, is that alcohol? You wouldn\u2019t be running a speakeasy, would you?\u201d<\/p>\n
He stared at me for a moment. \u201cI\u2026okay, first of all, alcohol is legal everywhere here. Secondly, I have a liquor license. And thirdly\u2026\u201d He gestured. \u201cThat crate was full of scrib jerky.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh.\u201d I paused, then bent down and scooped up a piece. \u201cSo,\u201d I said through a mouthful of jerky, \u201cWhat you\u2019re saying is, you\u2019re finally willing to cooperate?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI–\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, I see how it is. You types disgust me. Alright, I\u2019ll play your game.\u201d Scowling, I slid 100 drakes over the table. \u201cNow tell me what you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing! I don\u2019t know anything about your damn ledger! Now go away, I have customers!\u201d<\/p>\n
I stalked off, mollified. Okay, so maybe this chump didn\u2019t know anything, but maybe his customers did.<\/p>\n
After pestering a few, one of them finally had a bright idea: maybe I should investigate the new arrivals, since they\u2019re obviously more likely to be spies? These new residents included a local storekeeper and a random woman on the fringe of town.<\/p>\n
I hit up the storekeeper first. Immediately, I confronted him with my accusations\u2014he told me to search all I wanted, and that he didn\u2019t want any trouble. Maybe you should have thought of that before you stole Caldera property, pal.<\/p>\n
I searched the main area and didn\u2019t find anything. Then I found a staircase away from the main selling floor, leading to his bedroom upstairs. I prepared to pick the lock and investigate\u2026but then I saw that he had a guard stationed next to it! Hiring a legitimate officer of the law to guard thievery-prone areas of your establishment, are we? Suspicious indeed.<\/em><\/p>\n Since stealth wasn\u2019t an option, I decided just to damn the torpedoes and try to pick the lock. I failed. The guard noticed what I was doing, stopped me, and demanded that I pay the five gold fine for trying to pick a lock. I relented. Then I sat down and tried to pick the lock again. The guard turned to me again, took five gold, and returned to his post. This continued a few times until I\u2019d forced my way into his bedroom. Either they don\u2019t pay this guard enough or they pay him far, far <\/em>too much.<\/p>\n And for all of that, his apartment was clean. What a rip-off.<\/p>\n I found the documents in the other house. Turns out, they were being stolen by a woman from the thieves\u2019 guild, of which I am actually a member. So she was quite happy to part with the documents and let me bring them back, their interests and her seniority be damned. Not that I\u2019m complaining.<\/p>\n So, that went well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When we last left our hero, he\u2019d just royally and publically screwed over his boss. Keep in mind that this fellow, despite having just been caught red-handed in the middle of an act of...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153,268],"tags":[300],"class_list":["post-1343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lets-play","category-lets-play-morrowind","tag-lets-play"],"yoast_head":"\n