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Hire-able followers

"Need someone who can pick a lock and forget your face? Coin opens both."

Role: One-off NPC hires for specific jobs. Not team mercs - these are specialists you pull in for an evening's work. Pickpockets, lookouts, smugglers, ferrymen, informants.

At a glance
Where to find Shady corners - docks, back-alleys, late-night taverns
Cost Per-job, schematic tier (cheap → moderate → expensive)
Best paired with A specific scene (heist, smuggle run, intel pull)
Persists across The job. They walk after.
Party cap Most don't count - they're contractors, not followers

The roster

Pickpockets. Hire one to lift a specific target for you. Lower risk than doing it yourself; a cut of the take goes to them. Look for them in dock-side dives and back-room gambling holes.

Lookouts. Stationed at a scene entrance, they shout if Town Guard rolls past. Cheap. Best paired with a heist or sneak-in. Find them on the same back-alley NPC pool as pickpockets.

Smugglers. Move contraband between cities without it touching your inventory. Useful when you're carrying something that'd cost you Town Guard rep if searched. Dock-side, ask quietly.

Ferrymen. Cross water that doesn't have a bridge. Some routes are gated behind a small fee; others want a favor instead of coin.

Informants. Pay a moderate fee for a piece of intel - a schedule, a rumor, a name. The Letters + Rumors system feeds them material, so what they sell shifts with the world state. Find them in taverns and at the edges of faction halls.

Couriers. Carry a letter to a specific NPC for you. Faster than walking it yourself, and you can be elsewhere while it lands.

Forgers. Pricey. Make a document look real - letters of introduction, faction papers, deeds. Gated behind reputation in the right circles.

Caravan escorts. Hire one to walk with you between towns. They don't follow you into town; the contract ends at the gate. Cover for the road portion only.

How it works

  1. Find the NPC. Most hire-able followers cluster in shady locations - dockside bars, back alleys, late-shift taverns. Talk around. The wiki's Thieves' Guild page has the dockside directory; the on-the-record faction pages won't list these hires.

  2. Negotiate. Some hires open with a flat fee; others want a favor. Trust and reputation in their faction will lower the asking price - sometimes by a lot.

  3. Pay up front or after. Specialists with low Trust want it up front. With high Trust, you can pay on delivery. Skipping payment after = burned bridge, plus a chunk of negative rep in their network.

  4. They walk after the job. Most one-off hires aren't followers in the /bond sense - they don't count toward your party cap and they don't accumulate combat hours. They're contractors.

  5. Repeat clients get rates. Hire the same pickpocket three times and her rate softens. Hire her ten times and she may start bringing tips unprompted.

Why bother

  • Skill coverage you don't have. Can't pick locks? Hire someone who can.
  • Plausible deniability. The pickpocket lifts it; you weren't there.
  • No wage drag. Pay once, walk away.
  • They often unlock relationship + faction threads - a forger you've paid five times knows you, and that's leverage either way.

See also