A Missing Book

A Missing Book is a Mages Guild quest available during the events of. The Agent, in their attempts to join the Mages Guild in the Iliac Bay, is sent to retrieve a book, recently stolen from a Guild Hall.

Background
After escaping from Privateer's Hold, the Agent may wish to enhance their reputation within one of the major organisations of the Iliac Bay: The Mages Guild. However, without any true standing within the guild, the Agent will have to complete a few menial tasks for the Guild to prove their worthiness, as well as enhance their skills to meet the Guild's standards.

Objectives

 * Speak with a Guildmagister from the Mages Guild.
 * Ask around town for the location of the thief.
 * Track down and kill the thief.
 * Loot the book from their corpse.
 * Report back to the Guildmagister, with the book, before the time limit expires.

Walkthrough
Speaking with a Guildmagister from a local branch of the Mages Guild reveals that the Agent lacks the required reputation to join the Guild. However, the Guildmagister will offer the Agent a chance to boost their reputation, if they can track down a book that has recently been stolen from the Guildhall. The only issue is that the Guildmagister lack any clues as to who has taken the book, but they are certain that the local population do.

The Fable's Fable
The Agent will only be armed with the title of the book, and so will have to ask around the people of the town they are in about said book. Unfortunately, without any solid information, the populous can do little more than point the Agent to a gossip, currently staying in one of the Taverns. The gossip will willingly tell the Agent the thief's name, although they know little about the thief's whereabouts.

A Local Looter
Now armed with the thief's name, the Agent will have more success speaking with the local populous, eventually piecing together a list of potential places to find them: At home (between midnight and 08:00); At a Weapon Smith (08:01 until 16:01); Or a Tavern (16:02 til midnight). The Agent can now visit those places at the appropriate time to find the thief. When found, the thief, who appears as a thief, will instantly attack, stating:

"I hear you've been looking for [thief's name]. Well, you've found [him/her]. Now get lost before you make me really want to hurt you."

- A book thief

Once the thief lies dead, the Agent must loot the book from their corpse and head back to the Guildmagister before the time limit expires.

Rewards
The Agent will not receive any physical reward for completing the quest successfully, but will a boost to their reputation. The penalties for failing the quest are relatively high by comparison, but will also see gains among some anti-Mage Guild factions:

Trivia

 * If the town lacks a Weapon Smith and/or a Tavern, the thief will be absent completely during those times.
 * The Merchant quest The First Printing is almost identical to this quest.
 * NPCs will make a variety of comments relating to the quest when asked for any news:
 * Acceptance:
 * "The Mages Guild has a very rare edition of [book title]. Or at least, they had one."
 * "[Book title] is a rare book, but the edition the Mages Guild had was even more rare."
 * Success:
 * "The Mages Guild's library is enriched now that [book title] is back on the shelves."
 * Failure:
 * "It's a great loss to the Mages Guild -- that special edition of [book title]."
 * "The Mages Guild library isn't what it used to be, now that [book title] is gone."

Bugs

 * The quest time limit will always be ten days, despite the lack of a limit appearing in any dialogue/journal.