"Alright," he agrees, "How about that overview?"

He explains the situation - Goldenglow Estate is a bee farm, they used to pay the Guild protection money, then they stopped and hired a boatload of mercenaries. They also stopped supplying Maven Black-Briar, one of the Guild's most important patrons, with honey for her mead. It's a bad business all around. 

The contract is this: burn down some of the hives, empty the safe, and don't burn down the whole place while he's at it. They'd prefer he not kill any of the mercenaries, either, but so long as he doesn't get caught at any point he'll be golden. 

"How about the owner?"

"Aringoth. Smart-mouthed Wood-Elf. Maven prefers him alive, but if he tries to stop you, he's expendable."

"So, Maven Black-Briar, huh?" 

"Mmm. We had an arrangement with Maven. We keep an eye on Goldenglow - rough up the workers if there's a dispute, steal the shipments if he tries to sell to someone else, that sort of thing - and she let us extort Aringoth."

"Sounds lucrative. She seems to run the show around here." 

"She might as well be the Jarl of Riften. Nothing happens in this town without her consent."

"So how dangerous is it to cross her?" 

He raises a brow, "Let me put it this way - one word from her and anyone in the city could spend the rest of the fourth era in prison." 

"I guess Aringoth must be pretty crazy, then." He nods, "Thanks for answering my questions. I'll go get the specifics from Vex."

"You do that, lad - and good luck."

So he goes. 

First, the training room. Any Imperial-Redguard girls around here?

There is! She appears to be in the middle of beating someone up. Or perhaps sparring with them. Either way, she seems to be winning.

He'll wait for her to finish up. In the meantime, lockpicking! There's a bunch of locked chests in the corner of the room, presumably for practise picking different locks. 

She finishes pretty quickly, getting in a particularly sneaky punch and throwing them down. She laughs and helps them up, and then moves over to Gaemir.

"You're the new guy?"

By then he has two chests open and is working on the third. He glances up when she comes over and grins, "I am! Gaemir - Brynjolf sent me over to get the specifics on the Goldenglow Estate."

"Ah. Fun. I was thinking about having another go myself, but Brynjolf convinced me otherwise. A shame."

"So what am I dealing with? Any tips? Secret passageways, guard animals, particularly seduceable mercenaries?" 

Vex laughs. "All mercenaries are seducible with enough time and talent. But your best chance is to go through the tunnel. It's old and should still be unguarded." She dips into one of her many pockets and pulls out an incredibly detailed map of Goldenglow Estate and it's surroundings. "I drew this up from memory. Should get you where you need to go."

Wow! He is impressed by her memory! He takes it and looks it over, noting the position of the passage entrance and hives in particular. 

"Looks doable," he hums, "Anything in particular you want from the estate, since you've been so helpful?" 

Vex tilts her head and taps her lip. "I heard tell that old Aringoth has a moonstone locked up in his safe. I could make something with that."

He smiles, "It's all yours," he promises. 

He gives the map a more thorough look, then hands it back, "Probably won't have time to pull it out and look through while I'm there, I'll have to do with my memory. Thanks! If I'm not back by morning tell Brynjolf I'll miss him!"

And he's off. 

Vex laughs and goes back to beating up sparring with her fellow guild members.

That ladder out in the cistern is probably the back entrance... Yep! He pulls the chain to get the coffin above to move aside and finds himself out in a graveyard. Spooky!

There's a door to the docks nearby, so he heads out there. The Goldenglow Estate is on an island out in the lake - it's late evening, so he can see the lights from the Riften docks.

He pays a fisherman for use of his boat and then takes it out. He leaves the boat, his vest, boots, and bag inside, tied to a stand of trees on one of the little islands right up next to the Estate. 

Then, it's into the water for him! His favourite part! 

He climbs out next to the secret entrance scowling and shaking the water out of his hair. Nothing worse than a cold bath on a crisp autumn night. He does his best to squeeze the water out of his clothes, but his pants are a lost cause for now. He's not willing to infiltrate a hostile Estate pantsless, though, so he makes do.

 Into the sewers he goes!