Thieves Guild (Skyrim)

"Our access to those bits of luck are what separates us from common bandits."

- Gallus Desidenius

The Thieves Guild is one of several joinable factions that appear in. Stationed in The Ratway beneath the city of Riften, members of the Thieves Guild are renowned for causing trouble in the city. Members of the guild specialize in stealing objects of varying value or loaning septims. Most citizens view them unfavorably; Mjoll the Lioness has made it her duty to maintain order in Riften and pledges to dismantle the guild. Maven Black-Briar, the affluent owner of the popular Black-Briar Meadery, consorts with the guild in exchange for their aid. The guild has an uncanny luck due to certain members striking up a deal with the Daedric Prince, Nocturnal, to serve as her guardians.

History
Little is known about when and how the Thieves Guild was founded, but it is rumored to have been around as long as Riften has. As the Fourth Era continued, the Thieves Guild slipped further and further into obscurity and the members and regular clients began to leave (with the exception of Maven Black-Briar).

Joining
To join the Thieves Guild the Dragonborn must enter Riften during the day, and speak to Brynjolf, a red-headed Nord male, who can be found in the Riften Marketplace between 8:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. Once the Dragonborn is within proximity, Brynjolf will automatically attempt to strike up a conversation in which the Thieves Guild prerequisite quest A Chance Arrangement can be started. Alternatively, in the evenings past 8:00 p.m., the Dragonborn can encounter Brynjolf at The Bee and Barb inn, at which time he will tell the player to speak with him during the day at his stall in the Riften Marketplace.

Brynjolf, when encountered during the daytime, will give you the instructions to steal Madesi's Silver Ring from the strongbox located under his stall and then plant it inside of the pocket of Brand-Shei, the local general stall owner. He is identified as the only male Dunmer (or Dark Elf) in the crowd. Brynjolf will start a distraction by calling everybody within the area to listen to the story of his latest product that he's selling. During this time, carry out the plan as discussed with Brynjolf. Planting the ring will instantly end Brynjolf's tale he is telling to the crowd thus dispersing it. He will now tell you to meet him in the Ragged Flagon down in the Ratway to discuss membership.

Even if you fail to acquire the ring, Brynjolf will still allow your joining of the Guild, saying he still believes you have what it takes despite you failure. It will, however, make a few members of the guild treat you with more disdain, initially.

Main quests

 * 1) A Chance Arrangement
 * 2) Taking Care of Business
 * 3) Loud and Clear
 * 4) Dampened Spirits
 * 5) Scoundrel's Folly
 * 6) Speaking With Silence
 * 7) Hard Answers
 * 8) The Pursuit
 * 9) Trinity Restored
 * 10) Blindsighted
 * 11) Darkness Returns
 * 12) Under New Management

Small jobs
Delvin and Vex offer an unlimited number of radiant quests known as "jobs." The target item(s) and location are generated randomly. Jobs can be accepted and quit at will and it is possible (and efficient) to run a job for Delvin and one for Vex simultaneously. The reward for each mission is between 50 and 500. After performing five small jobs in Whiterun, Markarth, Windhelm, and Solitude, a special job will be unlocked for each. Killing those crucial to the job results in a failure, and no payment is given.



Delvin Mallory's jobs

 * The Bedlam Job - Steal enough items to get a given value within the assigned Hold. Legally taking an item from a house may not count towards it.
 * A very effective method is stealing an expensive item, going to a secluded location, then dropping it and picking it up a few times. Each time the item is picked up it counts as theft.
 * Items with red names are stolen items. These can only be sold to a Thieves' Guild Fence.
 * An easy yet slightly rare method of reaching the required goal is to accept a 'Sweep Job' from Vex at the same time, and then quit and retake the jobs until they are both in the same city. When the Sweep Job is completed, the Bedlam Job will be done also.
 * ​The Fishing Job - Pickpocket an item from a given character.
 * Can be difficult, but the quest item has usually a higher success percentage for pickpocketing than its usual kind, hence it is great training for this skill.
 * Save before pickpocketing the item to prevent getting caught and paying bounty.
 * These are also good jobs to take if you have yet to unlock the Thief (Achievement).
 * A rather tricky fishing job is to steal Olava the Feeble's silver ruby ring, due to the fact that usually when she's not asleep she is sitting on a bench with almost no way to sneak up to steal her ring.
 * The Numbers Job - Modify the ledger book at a given business. This is the easiest of Delvin's three jobs to complete. Near the ledger book, there might be a business safe box containing some.



Vex's jobs

 * The Burglary Job - Steal an item from a house.
 * Can be done during the day or night easily, as the owner either sleeps or is at work
 * The best time to do this sort of job is around 7:30 PM, as there is no one at home or on the street
 * The Heist Job - Steal an item from a business.
 * If tried during the day the shop owner will most likely follow the player around.
 * The Shill Job - Plant a stolen item in an NPC's home.
 * Similar to Burglary. May be easier since the only "illegal" part of it is trespassing, and getting caught by the guards any time during it doesn't cause it to be failed.
 * The Sweep Job - Steal three items from a house.

City Influence Quests
After completing five Small Jobs in a city (with the exception of Riften), Delvin Mallory will offer a special job to restore Thieves Guild influence in that city. These quests can be taken in any order. The city influence quests are necessary in order to complete Under New Management and assume the title of Guildmaster. (However, before completing them all, see the bugs reported for Under New Management.) Becoming Guildmaster allows access to the Guild Master's Tribute Chest.

Each city influence quest that is completed will add a merchant stall to The Ragged Flagon. In addition, the gold available to fences throughout Skyrim gradually increases as these quests are completed, up to a maximum of 4000. The third and fourth city influence quests will each add a new recruit to the Guild as well: first Garthar, and then Ravyn Imyan.

While related, Deliver Moon Sugar to Ri'saad is not itself a city influence quest. It is given by Tonilia rather than Delvin Mallory, and is not a prequisite for Under New Management.

Merchants
Although these unlocked merchants work for the guild, they do not act as a fence and therefore do not buy goods marked as stolen.

Advantages To Joining

 * Access to the Thieves Guild headquarters.
 * A suit of Thieves Guild Armor.
 * Nightingale Armor, The Nightingale Blade, and The Nightingale Bow after you proceed up the ranks.
 * Three interchangeable unique powers once the Nightingale story arc is complete.
 * Access to Chillrend, potentially the deadliest unique sword in the game and strongest in the original game.
 * Fences who will buy stolen as well as regular goods and can carry larger amounts of gold (4,000 after completing all four improvement quests; they have 1,000 gold initially).
 * Tonilia, the fence for the Guild, is one of the earliest vendors to regularly sell Daedric weaponry.
 * Chests ranging from novice to master for building your Lockpicking skill.
 * Free gold and lockpicks lying around the headquarters.
 * Unlimited thievery radiant quests which reward gold.
 * Master-level training in Lockpicking (Vex), Archery (Niruin), Pickpocket (Vipir the Fleet), and Sneak (Delvin Mallory).
 * Guild Master's Armor (a decent light armor) and the Amulet of Articulation can be obtained once the main quest line and the guild improvement quests are completed.
 * Dialogue option to avoid conflict with thieves encountered on the roads, later upgraded to such thieves paying you tributes. (this appears in the Thieves Guild Master's tribute chest directly in front of the desk located in the Cistern).
 * Guards can be bribed even if the character has low Speech skill and no bribe perk.
 * With a low bounty, if caught pickpocketing, take out the equipped weapon (if not already out) and then put it away to initiate a speech option to get away with every thing for around 12 gold (along with all other guards leaving you alone).
 * The Skeleton Key, an unbreakable lockpick (temporary).
 * The only way to learn one of the words of the Disarm shout is to complete the first six primary quests.
 * An isolated target range with human targets as well as regular circular ones.
 * Dummies in the target range to admire the way the Dragonborn performs attacks.

Trophy cases
Various unique items can be stolen during the Thieves Guild quests and sold to Delvin. As each is collected and sold to Delvin, they will be displayed on the shelves behind Mercer's Desk where the can freely be taken or left as decoration. By following the questline, the items appear in the following order:
 * Queen Bee Statue in Goldenglow Estate
 * Honningbrew Decanter in Honningbrew Meadery
 * East Empire Shipping Map in East Empire Company Warehouse
 * Model Ship in Snow Veil Sanctum
 * Dwemer Puzzle Cube in Calcelmo's Laboratory in the Dwemer Museum in Markarth
 * Bust of the Gray Fox in Riftweald Manor in Riften
 * Left Eye of the Falmer in Irkngthand

Trophies also appear for completing a certain number of jobs assigned by Vex and Delvin:
 * Jeweled Candlestick appears after 5 jobs are completed.
 * Ornate Drinking Horn appears after 15 jobs are completed.
 * Golden Ship Model appears after 25 jobs are completed.
 * Golden Urn appears after 35 jobs are completed.
 * Jeweled Goblet appears after 45 jobs are completed.
 * Jeweled Flagon appears after 55 jobs are completed.
 * Jeweled Pitcher appears after 75 jobs are completed.
 * A safe appears after 125 jobs are completed. It contains random loot and sometimes special thief potions that improve the Dragonborn's stealth skills.

Finally, the Crown of Barenziah is placed on the bust in the center of the shelves upon completion of the mission No Stone Unturned.

Tips
Players seeking to complete these city quests as fast as possible should quick save before getting a new job and then ask for Bedlam Jobs from Delvin and Sweep Jobs from Vex. (Hint: quick save once the dialogue is finished, but before the quest objective appears to avoid going through the conversation again) Once the sweep job is done, the bedlam job will be completed as well, essentially completing two tasks at once. If it is in a city whose influence quest has already been completed, quick load and try again. Another way is to quit the job Delvin and/or Vex assigned, then ask for the job again. There are no negative repercussions for quitting jobs, excluding the multiple failed missions in the quest log and the short disapproving dialogue after each quit job.

Thieves

 * Mercer Frey - Guild Master
 * Brynjolf - Second-in-Command
 * Delvin Mallory - Senior Member, Gives the player Small Jobs and Special Jobs, Master Sneak Trainer, Sells upgrades to Dawnstar Sanctuary
 * Vex - Senior Member, Gives the player Small Jobs, Master Lockpicking Trainer
 * Tonilia - Fence
 * Sapphire - Appears around the Bee and Barb before Speaking With Silence, wanders the Cistern after
 * Cynric Endell - Former Jailbreaker
 * Niruin - Master Archery Trainer
 * Rune - Member
 * Thrynn - Former Bandit
 * Vipir the Fleet - Master Pickpocket Trainer
 * Garthar - joins after completing three Special Jobs for Delvin Malory
 * Ravyn Imyan - joins after completing four Special Jobs for Delvin Malory; Morag Tong member
 * Etienne Rarnis - Only if completed the Diplomatic Immunity quest if you free him from the Thalmor
 * Molgrom Twice-Killed- Located in the Riften Jail

Associates

 * Vekel the Man - Runs The Ragged Flagon
 * Dirge - The Ragged Flaggon's bouncer, the brother of Maul
 * Syndus - Arrows and weapons merchant
 * Herlium Lothaire - Alchemy merchant
 * Arnskar Ember-Master - Blacksmith
 * Vanryth Gatharian - Armor and weapons merchant

Trainers

 * Delvin Mallory: Master Sneak trainer
 * Niruin: Master Archery trainer
 * Vex: Master Lockpicking trainer
 * Vipir the Fleet: Master Pickpocket trainer

Fences
Fences buy stolen goods. There are a total of nine different fences throughout Skyrim, including each Khajiit caravan:

Armor sets
When completing quests in the Thieves guild questline, the player can obtain four different armor sets.
 * Thieves Guild Armor (Obtained after Taking Care of Business)
 * Nightingale Armor (Obtained during Trinity Restored)
 * Guild Master's Armor Set (Obtained after Under New Management)
 * Linwe's Armor Set (Obtained during Summerset Shadows)


 * A full set of Thieves Guild Armor can be found in the training room in the Cistern. It respawns over a period of time.

Expulsion from the guild
Thieves caught attacking other guild members or one of their associates are removed from the guild and none of the members speak to them. To rejoin the guild, speak to Vex, for a fee of 1,000, the guild can be rejoined. Being caught pickpocketing other guild members will not result in being removed from the guild.

Trivia

 * Occasionally a random event occurs where an unnamed Thief will attempt lockpick a door in any city. Guards will attack the thief until he's either dead or he escapes. The thief will never attack the player, but he can be killed without any repercussions.
 * Normally this random thief has:
 * Gold (random amount)
 * Lockpicks (random amount)
 * Random houseware (candlesticks, platters, plates, etc.)
 * Gems (random assortment)
 * In the small training room in the Cistern, there are chests for each level of difficulty. These chests contain leveled loot, and will respawn after a few in-game days, providing the player with a good source of money and training.
 * A book written by Delvin Mallory can be found in the Flagon, called Shadowmarks. Shadowmarks are carvings into buildings near their main doorways, and are very handy in pointing out locations around cities that have good loot.
 * Unlike the other factions, namely The Companions and the College of Winterhold, none of the Thieves Guild members can be married. This is also true with the Dark Brotherhood.

Achievements
Гильдия Воров (Skyrim) Gilda dei Ladri (Skyrim)