I'm nearing the end of the Thieves Guild quest line. I'm level 12, I've got maxed out agility, nowhere near maxed out anything else. 45 security, 80 sneak, 72 acrobatics, 43 light armor, 48 short blade, mediocre all other skills. I've got an iron shortblade and some chitin armor, and a few low grade magic items that can cast Silence 10s on Target, Frost Damage 5-11, and Telekenisis 25ft 5s. Spell

I've done all of the quests for the Thieves Guild in Balmora, Ald'ruh, Sadrith Mora, and all of the Bal Molagmer quests. All that's left is the final quests for Gentleman Jim Stacy, and I am stuck on The Brothers Ienith. They wipe the floor with me. Stealth doesn't seem like a great option. I might be able to get a backstab on one, but the other would spawn right away and just zap me dead. I spent my last Septim on training and I'm at level 12, but I doubt it's enough.

I guess I need more training and a real sword, but that takes money, and I haven't gotten any real big hauls as a thief. Even when I robbed the Ald'ruhn mages guild, that only got me a little over 2,000 or so.

An iron shortblade at level 12? No good. There are two easy options that will help a lot: 1. buy a demon tanto from Ra'virr in Balmora for about 150g. This will give you a bound dagger which is a very good shortblade with 20 damage and a 10pt skill boost. Or, 2. buy a jink blade from Wayn for about 350g. This gives you paralyze, perfect for the brothers.

Well I did it, at level 15.

I wandered into the Telvanni Enchanter's shop, and found a lot of magic stuff in an unguarded closet, and several devil weapons, including a devil tanto. So naturally I closed the door and took everything I could carry. I fenced what I could, and traded what I couldn't for a glass helm and greaves at Ghostgate.

I took some detours, did some crypt raiding and wilderness questing. I snatched a Daedric Tanto from a shrine without being seen, and later killed a dremora and took his ebony short sword, which appears to be a much better weapon than the Daedric Tanto.

Just now I killed the Brothers Ienith, and the ebony shortsword helped, but what REALLY helped was the amulet of shadows that I got from a wilderness quest near Gnisis. 80% chameleon combined with my already high sneak skill, and I could just whittle them to death without any sort of retaliation. Orvas Dren too. And they've got an awful lot of moon sugar down there.