Ironically, the first few draugr weren't the main threat in Dustman's Cairn. Farkas drove through most of them with his large sword, and I picked off any stragglers by hitting them with my shield until they were disoriented enough for me to shove my blade through them.
We made it through the first tombs of Dustman's Cairn mostly unharmed. It only got complicated once we reached the antechamber. It was a massive, open room. There were thrones, tables, and bookshelves lined along the walls. One of the tables even had an arcane enchanter placed on it.
The most interesting part of this room, however, was the two gates, one open and one closed. There appeared to have been a third at one point, but the central one's ceiling collapsed in due to age. There was a lever at the back end of the open gate's room. Farkas went scouting the chamber for draugr. I walked to the lever and pulled it.
SCHLIK!
The gate dropped down behind me, trapping me in the room. The other gate on the right opened because of that.
Farkas rushed over to my trapped position.
"Now look what you've gotten yourself into. No worries, just sit tight.", he reassured me, "I'll find a release."
He started searching the room until he heard a noise that I couldn't perceive.
"What was that?", he exclaimed as he was drawing his sword.
A bunch of men moved towards Farkas. There appeared to be five of them surrounding Farkas. Their weapons were drawn. The weapons appeared to be glinting more than usual, like silver.
The ambushers stepped closer to Farkas.
"Killing you will make for an excellent story.", one of the ambushers taunted.
Farkas rebutted coldly, "None of you will be alive to tell it."
Farkas dropped his sword after that and started clenching in pain. He grew larger, taller, more muscular and his stature more broad and elongated. His steel armour started straining and breaking apart from his transformation. Its shattered pieces fell from his changing body. Hair began rapidly growing, covering his entire body.
One of the ambushers worked up the courage to swing their axe at the werewolf taking the place of Farkas. Farkas didn't take that attempted attack well.
Farkas had grabbed the attacker's warhammer in his hand (well, paw).
THUD!
He reached out with his other arm and flung the attacker into the wall. Farkas swung around and sliced another ambusher with his paw's sharp nails. Deep gashes appeared on the victim even though he wore thick steel armour.
Two of the ambushers tried to attack Farkas at once. One charged a spear towards Farkas' torso. The other shot arrows from her bow at him. Farkas grabbed the charger in one arm and used him as a human shield against the arrows.
After the second shot, Farkas was upon her. Farkas dropped his fleshy shield and grabbed the shooter with one paw on of her each arms.
He started pulling. The archer screamed until Farkas finished tearing her in half. He quickly dropped her mangled remains after that.
Farkas turned to face the last one. The final ambusher started wavering. He dropped his weapon and tried to run, but Farkas got in a crouching position and pounced. Farkas land on the running man with the full weight of his body. Farkas clamped his maw on the attacker's throat and feasted before barreling off down the open gateway.
I stood there for a few moments in shock, shield at the ready in case werewolf Farkas wasn't as friendly as human one.
The gate opened up.
Farkas came back from gateway after a minute. He was naked but in human form, at least. He walked over to the least disfigured victim and started changing into their armour.
"This doesn't fit as well.", he muttered to himself.
Then he headed over to me, "I hope I didn't scare you"
"WHAT THE FLIPPITY FREAKING FUCK WAS THAT!", I shouted in panic.
"It's a blessing given to some of us.", he said stoically, "We can be like wild beasts. Fearsome."
"Okay…", I breathed, "Now, who just attacked us then?"
"The Silver Hand.", Farkas answered, "Bad people who don't like werewolves, so they don't like us either."
I pressed, "Us? Do you mean the Companions? Are you saying all the Companions are werewolves?"
"Not everyone.", he assured me, "But all the Circle are. It's a secret to everybody."
"Lovely.", I muttered under my breath.
He must have heard my comment as he responded, "It is. Now, prove your honor to be a Companion. 'Eyes on the prey, not the horizon.' We should keep moving, still the draugr to worry about."
Farkas and I continued (albeit I did so more uneasily knowing my companion was vicious murder doggy) into the crypt. We let the draugr and the Silver Hand members fight each other for the most part, and we killed any survivors (by 'we' I mean mostly Farkas).
We then reached an iron door with traditional Nordic crypt markings.
We reached the main tomb.
It had a short, wide corridor with 6 metal sarcophagi lining the walls, 3 on each side, just past the door. The main chamber had an open space with ascending stairs leading to an oddly marked and curved wall with a table in directly in front of it. The right side of the chamber was lined with a number of sarcophagi. The left side had wooden stairs and platform leading to an edge with a few more sarcophagi scattered around it.
The total number of sarcophagi: 22
I walked to up the stairs. I first saw oddly marked and curved wall.
I realized the markings were words. They were words in another language, but they were words. I felt I could understand the words, but also that I couldn't.
QETHSEGOL VahRUKIV KiiR JUN JAFNHAR WO LOS AG NahLaaS NaaL YOL DO LOT DOVah LODUNOST
(This stone commemorates the child king, Jafnhar, who was burned alive by the fire of the great dragon, Lodunos.)
The words didn't make sense, yet they did.
I didn't dwell upon it; however, I turned to the table. The fragment of Wuuthrad rested upon the pedestal on the table. I grabbed it and placed it into my belt pouch.
That was one of the bigger mistakes in my increasingly shortening life.
THUD!
The sarcophagi doors fell off one by one. Draugr started shambling out of their resting places, raising their weapons and summoning magics.
As soon as the draugr started towards us, Farkas was already charging down the corridor.
Farkas is a whirlwind when fighting. He has a penchant for slicing opponents in half with his sword. The draugr in the corridor learnt this the hard way, obviously. Within seconds, he had cut all six of the draugr from the corridor in half, at varying different angles of cuts.
However, this left 16 draugr in the main chamber. The three closest to me circled around me.
Three-on-one is never good odds when in a fight. Three-on-one is even worse when the three are undead ancient warriors and the one is you, an amateur combatant who was just learning how to fight properly.
I held my shield up just as on of them swung at me. I pushed the shield against the attacking draugr in an attempt to make distance.
"ACK!", I screamed.
The draugr behind me was blasting a frost spell at my back causing a stinging pain. I turned and smacked the casting hand away from my direction with my shield. I used my other arm to shove my sword through the draugr's skull.
I retracted my blade from the now fully dead draugr; however, another draugr swung its axe into my left shoulder blade as I did this.
I fell to the ground after that. I turned and raised my shield over my body to defend against the two surviving draugrs attacks, but my injury made it difficult. The more remaining draugr started surrounding me.
They were barraging me with attacks. My shield was actually shattering from the repetitive impacts.
Luckily for me, Farkas was faring a lot better.
He came back from the corridor. He swung around the room so rapidly that he became a whirlwind of death. The draugrs separated limbs, heads, and bodies hadn't even hit the ground before he was slicing the next one apart.
The draugrs' numbers dropped each second.
16.
11.
6.
Farkas finally made it to my location as I was cowering under my breaking shield. The wood of it was splitering, and the metal frame was bending.
However, Farkas was tearing through the 6 draugrs now around me. He gotten two of them until one of them, the draugr wearing a large horned helmet, shouted.
FUS… RO DAH!
It sounded similar to what the dragon had shouted in Helgen. The shouted projected a force that knocked Farkas to the ground.
That was not good news. Once you get Farkas going, he's a force to be reckoned with. If you can knock Farkas down, however, then he's a lot easier to take down.
With Farkas on the ground, the draugr were able to take advantage of this.
He tried parrying what attacks he could with his sword, but it wasn't much. Swinging a sword while knocked down on the floor isn't very effective. He wasn't going to be able to withstand their barrage forever. I wasn't faring so well when I was pinned under them, and I had a shield at the time. Farkas didn't have a shield.
I rose, albeit slowly, and I dropped my basically useless shield. I had one trick up my sleeve. The reason I never used it was because the Companions discourage magic usage. (I was also never much good at magic anyways as I lacked practice up to that point.)
After Farengar's description of the job he requested from us, I bought a spell tome from him. I did so because I thought it'd be useful for camping, lighting, or cooking. I didn't intend for combat usage; however, the undead have, among others, a weakness for a specific element.
Fire.
I willed the element into my left hand, and it started warming. Intense heat was radiating from my hand hand. Flames spouted from my palm and began enveloping my hand. I projected it towards the draugr in a fiery stream.
The draugr turned from Farkas to face me after being blasted with flames. I keep blasting the fire towards them until my focus began to fade. That's a problem with magic, it consumes your focus. If you cast continuous spells for too long, you'll become mentally drained until you can't focus on the room you're in, which is really bad for fighting.
I then slashed my sword at one of the draugrs' neck. It almost fully detached from its body.
The draugr with the large horns rushed directly in front of me and inhaled a deep breath. It was preparing to shout those damned magical words again.
In an attempt to stop this, I raised my left arm (which, I might add, was quite painful) and projected flames into its mouth.
This caused the large horned draugr to stagger backwards towards a waiting Farkas.
Farkas had risen and thrusted his sword through the torso of the draugr.
I turned around to cut another draugr diagonally across the chest. I sliced again, this time in the opposite direction. My final slash was towards the legs of the draugr. It began falling.
I stabbed it through the back once it hit the ground.
Farkas had dealt with the remaining draugr in his usual rapid manner.
"Farkas!", I called as I sat down on the floor, "You should take this."
"Take what?"
"The fragment of Wuuthrad.", I grabbed it from my pouch.
He started towards me, "You'll be fine. Stand up, new blood."
"I know, I know. I'm just a bit tired, and I need to rest a bit. You should get this to Jorrvaskr as soon as possible, so we don't risk it getting lost again.", I placed it in his hand.
"Are you sure?", he questioned.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. You just go ahead of me because I'll be taking a few hours."
"Alright.", he relented, "See you at Jorrvaskr."
He took his leave of the crypt.
I grabbed a medium sized health potion from my belt and drank it. After that, I passed out on the crypt floor for a couple of hours.
When I awoke, my stinging back and shoulder cut seemed mostly healed. I started grabbing anything of value or interest (including the silver equipment of the Silver Hand) and shoved it into my belt pouch on my way out of Dustman's Cairn. I arrived back at Whiterun just before dusk.
As I made my way up the steps to Jorrvaskr, Vilkas caught me.
"The Circle's waiting for you out back.", he said.
"What?", I said, puzzled.
"Just follow me.", he ordered.
Vilkas and I walked around Jorrvaskr to the training yard.
The members of the Companions were sitting in the resting/equiptment area of the yard. The Circle, however, was standing in the open area. They were in order from right to left: Aela, Skjor, Kodlak, and Farkas.
All but Aela was wearing the wolf armour now, including Farkas now that his steel armour got destroyed.
"Stand before the Circle.", Vilkas told me.
He then went to stand next to Farkas.
Kodlak spoke from the center of the semi-cirle, "Brothers and Sisters of the Circle, today we welcome a new soul into our mortal fold. This man has endured, has challenged and has showed his/her valor. Who will speak for him?"
Farkas stepped forward, "I stand witness for the courage of the soul before us."
"Would you raise your shield in his/her defense?", Kodlak asked.
"I would stand at his/her back, that the world might never overtake us.", Farkas answered.
Kodlak continued, "And would you raise your sword in his/her honor?"
"It stands ready to meet the blood of his foes."
"And would you raise a mug in his name?"
"I would lead the song in triumph as our mead hall reveled in his stories.", Farkas proclaimed rather dramatically.
"Then this judgment of this Circle is complete.", Kodlak declared, "His heart beats with the fury and courage that have united the Companions since the days of the distant green summers. Let it beat with ours, so the mountains may echo and our enemies may tremble at the call."
The Circle spoke in unison, "It shall be so!"
Most of the Companions left rather unceremoniously after that.
Kodlak, however, stayed behind.
"Well, boy, you're one of us now.", he congratulated, "I trust you won't disappoint."
"Thanks.", I said, "It means a lot, Kodlak, but I have a question."
"Ask away, boy."
"So… are the the Companions werewolves?"
"I see you've been allowed to know some secrets before your appointed time.", he said regretfully, "Yes, it's true, but not every Companion is. No, only members of the Circle share the blood of the beast. Some take to it more than others."
"What's your thoughts on this?", I pressed.
"Well, I grow old.", Kodlak responded, "My mind turns towards the horizon, to Sovngarde. I worry that Shor won't call an animal warrior as he would a true Nord warrior. Living as beasts draws our souls closer to the Daedric lord, Hircine. Some may prefer eternity in his hunting grounds, but I crave the fellowship of Sovngarde."
He looked rather sorrowful at that thought.
"Do you seek to cure yourself, Kodlak?"
"Yes, but it's no easy matter. But you don't need to share the worries of an old warrior.", he changed subjects rather abruptly, "This day is to rejoice in your bravery!"
Kodlak started walking back into Jorrvaskr, but he turned back behind him, "And speak to Eorlund for a better gear than...", he glanced at me, "whatever that is."
The door to Jorrvaskr closed behind him.
I opted to order a black dyed leather cuirass, boots, bracers, and pauldrons braced with steel studs, thick leather pants, jerkin with a hood (also dyed for low light situations), a long bow and a short bow, one broadsword, one longsword, two daggers, a glaive, and a steel shield.
I know. I went a little overboard on Kodlak's offer of free gear, but I payed Eorlund anyways for the effort he went to in crafting. (I payed some of it in silver weapons, but I still payed). I had to wait till the week before my trip to Bleak Falls Barrow for it to be done, however.