So you’re still alive, huh? Good. The Iron Wheel has cost us a lot of good footpads lately, and we can use all the competent help we can get. Glad you made it, kid.
By now, you’re probably familiar with Abah’s Landing and the setup we have here at the Thieves Guild. The Heists, the Tips, Spencer’s Reacquisitions. A Thief with a good head on their shoulders like you should have it all down by now, and you’re probably feeling a little restless. Am I right?
Of course I am.
Lucky for you, Abah’s Landing isn’t the only place for enterprising Thieves to find a pretty penny in Hew’s Bane. Word went around that there was a little noise down in the Shark’s Teeth Grotto, so I went to check it out myself. I have the intel on the whole set-up for Guild members looking to get their piece of the action. If you were interested, of course…
Marking Territory
The Grotto itself is at the south side of Hew’s Bane, our little slice of paradise filled with scorpions, giant insects, lamias — all sorts of nasty pieces of work. Once you’re through the door, though, you’ll meet Shalug the Shark. She’s not an operative of ours, no, but she does control the Sharktooth Gang. Her outfit owned the place, before a bunch of pirates that call themselves the Wake Walkers showed up and decided they liked the accommodations.
While normally we’d decommission any competing outfits like hers, she keeps the Walkers busy and pays for a little vandalism daily. Speak to her and do an easy bit of Shark-fin graffiti at a few spots, and she’ll fork over the coin and some experience. Just watch your step – the Walkers aren’t too friendly towards anyone that isn’t a part of their crew, and the whole place is covered in trip-wires and bear traps.
It’s a little safer than Cyrodiil, but losing your cool will likely mean losing your leg…or head…or any number of body parts, really. So keep an eye out and take it slow if you value leaving in one piece.
The sky is falling
Work your way north, through the Wake Walker encampments, and you’ll come up to a cave filled with flare traps, giant insects, Wake Walkers, and more. Now, you could go adventure down that way, murdering your way in and picking up some loot and experience off everything in your path — if that’s the way your blade swings. Or, you could follow the woodwork.
If you do that second one, like I did, you’ll see this — whatever it is. Looks like a shard of the sky fell into the Grotto. I was going to…appropriate…it just to see what it went for, but I couldn’t get the blasted thing to budge. Just sat there and glowed at me all smug-like.
Maybe you can figure out what to do with it — I’m sure there’s something valuable about it to some poor soul.
Some bites are worse than a shark’s
As a word of warning — you see those things above are everywhere. Everywhere. I’m fairly certain the Kotu Gava are the only actual owners of the Grotto, and everyone else just happens to be here.
The bite is bad enough, but the longer you fight the Broodmothers, the more big nasties show. Even when the thing is dead, its body spawns little ones. None of them are too tough alone, but they drink blood faster than a vampire coming off a diet and there never seem to be less than a million of the things. I’d pack some way to deal with crowds of enemies, if I were you — or just find the nearest sorcerer that doesn’t understand what expendable means, and doesn’t mind a few hundred bug bites.
It’s been a few days, and I’m still itchy.
Finally, to the west there’s a First Mate of the Walkers hanging about. He isn’t too bad, bark’s louder than his bite. Unfortunately, he’s got a giant snake named Leelo and a Krona Keeba, whatever that is, with him. The swag they have stored isn’t bad, just be careful — it hurts a bit to try and put them down alone, and they come back for more very quickly.
In any case, best of luck in the Grotto, kid. Try not to get yourself killed, alright? I have a feeling there’s something worth grabbing in Bahraha’s Gloom, and we might need every able hand we can get for a job like that — so try and keep yours attached until then, won’t you?
Now if you’ll excuse me, rumor is there’s some freelancer named Etsyo sneaking about stabbing all the locals, and wearing a hood not so different from ours. Bad publicity, that. I’ll have to have a word with him about running unsanctioned in the Landing…
