Chapter 7: Bleak Falls Barrow, Part 2
"Hey! I told you to stay put out there until your shift's over! Hey, did you hear me!?" The two adventurers heard a woman shouting from far across the hall, and waited where they stood in this old, decrepit hall. Summer noticed a dead body lying under the light shining through a crumbled wall to their left, and there was also something else lying next to him, seemingly obscured by the darkness. She wanted to know what it was, but she soon caught the two bandits coming out from behind a column to investigate. They could tell they were surprised to see faces they never met before.
"Huh? Who the hell are you!?" Yelled a female nord bandit with a bow in alarm while a male nord wielding an axe and shield stood tense beside her.
"Sorry but we don't work for you. Your bandit buddies are dead," Adrien stated. "If you value your lives, you should take whatever loot you still have and walk away."
"And leave behind the biggest payday we'll ever get?! Not a chance." The male nord refused, greed flashing hungrily in his eyes. "In fact, you just made us even richer. Less hands to split the pay, and a bonus with your loot!"
The two bandits raised their weapons and charged to protect their absent boss at all cost. Adrien closed in and was about ready to swipe his legs, but saw an arrow whizz past the bandit's head and going straight for him. He instinctively moved left to dodge the projectile in time, but he soon knew it was a distraction, so he braced himself for the nord's round shield barreling into him. The impact almost knocked him off balance, and he suddenly heard and felt the war axe scraping the side of this helmet and hitting the horn, so he used his body and footing to roll around the shield while catching the axe head with the edge of his greatsword above his head, twirled it and managed a cut at the bandit's face. They disentangled and squared again against each other; he noticed with worry that his back was facing the archer, but his gut told him to focus on the axe-wielding bandit alone as Summer would watch his back.
The enemy archer had accounted for this, though, and before Summer could let loose her own shot at her she had to duck and roll to avoid the two arrows seeking her. A serpent head statue loomed over her and, acting on a flash of inspiration, she dove behind it, and from the cover of darkness she quickly recovered, took aim, and fired her own arrow at point-blank range at her assailant; the bandit archer saw it coming and her own bow was already drawn and ready to shoot, but the short distance did not give her much time to dodge. She loosed her own arrow as it went straight through her head, and would not live to see her shot striking her enemy on her left wrist. The huntress growled in pain as she dropped her bow. This kind of pain was familiar, but she had not felt this kind of pain in a long time since those hunters.
Meanwhile, the nord made a feint by jumping close to his position with his shield raised, hoping to provoke him to make a move, and it had the effect as the knight attacked his shield, making him buckle almost to his surprise. So right away he went on the offensive, using his axe to grab his greatsword and brought it down while colliding into him with his shield. Then the bandit raised his weapon over his head to carve into his helmet, but when his hand was over the shield, he was literally caught by surprise when his hand was grabbed by his opponent and was summersalted, on top of his own shield, over the knight and to the stone floor, heavyset with muscle though he may be, knocking the wind out of him and losing his axe in the process. The knight thought he heard the sound of his partner in pain, but he ignored it, quickly grabbing his greatsword from the dusty floor and made a beeline for his head, but the nord saw it coming and rolled out of the way as the blade hit stone. He got back up and pulled out his steel dagger, and for a brief moment they went into a stare-down. The nord once again went first as he charged him with his shield raised again, seeing that the knight was going to attack from above, but he didn't realize it was a trap, for after he raised his greatsword, he then quickly went down in a crouch and thrusted the blade into his under belly, right under his shield. The sudden thrust halted the nord in his tracks, in both audible pain and shock as the blade was shoved further in, then the knight stood up, pulled the sword out as the bandit fell to his knees and swung his sword, leaving the bandit headless. The corpse flopped to the floor in a fountain of blood.
The fight was over, but Adrien soon saw, next to the serpent head statue, that Summer was in pain. He watched her pull out an iron arrow from her bloodied wrist. He marched up to her to help.
"You still have a healing potion, right?" He asked as he soon knelt in front of her. From the pain, she heard what he said, and she remembered right away that she had one tucked away in her bag. So she used her uninjured hand and reached under her cloak and fished out the little red bottle. She popped the cork with her teeth, let it drop and put the bottle to her lips. She drank it all down and was left with an odd taste in her mouth, but the feeling she was getting throughout her entire body felt comforting, and any aches or pains she felt were vanishing. Curious, she put the cork back on the bottle, placed it down and undid the straps to her bloodied gauntlets before taking them off seeing, to her amazement, that the wound she had was gone, only a phantom of where it once was, and her gauntlet left with her bloodstain.
"Amazing," she gasped in exasperation as she moved her hand around, and still no sign of pain whatsoever. Aura can heal scars and wounds fast while active, but to have something that could heal wounds like Aura could first hand astounded her.
"That's just from only one small bottle," Adrien stated. "I've used larger bottles that saved me from the brink of death." He offered his hand. She put away the empty bottle, slipped her gauntlet back on, grabbed her bow and happily accepted the help as she was gently pulled up. "Right, take your time retrieving your arrow, while I go check on what's over there." He pointed at the far end toward a bonfire.
"Okay." She put the empty bottle back in her backpack while he went past her, putting away her axes and restrapping her gauntlets before she went to get her arrows back. But, before she reached the corpse, she finally caught a look at that lump of fur on the floor. Now that she was this close enough, she made out the details to realize what she was looking at… to her disgust and horror.
"A rat? A giant rat?!" She exclaimed, and indeed she was looking at a big, mangy, slaughtered rat that looked to be larger than a house cat.
"Hm?" He stopped and followed where she was exclaiming about, only to see the dead rat. "Oh, I noticed that, too," he answered as if it were normal to see a large rodent. "I guess Skyrim has its own rat problems too. Only these ones look more nasty. Perhaps a northern cousin, maybe?" He pondered to himself.
"Are you saying there are more kinds of these giant rats?" She asked flabbergasted.
"The ones I know aren't ugly to look at, but I'll bet these two are just as vicious."
"Great! Giant rats that attack people," she said sarcastically as she pinched the bridge of her nose and sulked. "Seeing oversized spiders was bad enough!"
"I know they can be a nuisance but they're easy to deal with. Just don't underestimate their numbers."
"Something tells me there's a story behind that." She queried, and the thought of a colony of giant rats unsettled her more.
"Maybe some other time," he dropped it, and then went on his way.
She sighed, looked at the large rodent in disgust one more time before returning to her task. She knelt down in front of the dead woman, and did a small prayer before doing the job. Although pulling the steel arrow out of her skull was tricky, and although she failed the first time, taking her time had finally paid off in the end. With that done and her arrow successfully retrieved, she followed where her partner had gone to, only to stop and see more dead rats. This time, they lead up to a dead bandit lying on a stone table. She noticed the bites and scratch marks, and could only guess that these rats were the culprits that did him in. Same could be said about the other dead body behind her. Maybe there was some truth behind his words? She shook the thought, then went on her way to meet up with her partner. She made it to where the bonfire was made, and witnessed Adrien taking his time with a locked chest.
"Are you sure we should be looting from the dead?" she asked, concerned and bothered by the idea of taking things from the slain.
"Technically, they don't belong to them," he answered as he continued to fiddle with the lock undeterred. "Most of these items could've been stolen, and honestly, there's no point leaving them here. Better to be used by us than them, so we make do with what we find for now. If we do end up finding more treasure, I'll split it with you. You'll need it."
She nodded reluctantly as she crossed her arms, quietly questioning his knighthood. The idea still did not sit well with her morals, but at this point she would be calling herself a hypocrite after what she just did prior to getting here. "Alright, you have a point."
Adrien continued his work fiddling with the lock with his lockpicks. The lock turned out to be more complicated when he first started, so he had to be more careful from then on. He only had a few lockpicks, so it was best that he did not lose them. After some careful maneuvering, he finally heard a click, and twisted the lock before putting his tools away. He unlatched and opened the chest to reveal many items beside the bag of Septims. Most of these items were supplies meant for this whole trip from whatever camp they came from. He did, however, spot a minor healing potion and an enchanted dagger. The dagger was glowing green, and he could tell without having knowledge of enchantments that it was poisonous, for which purpose he did not know. It could be useful, but he opted to sell it instead, so he took the three items into his backpack for safekeeping, and to count and arrange the Septims later.
"Okay," he announced as he closed the lid and then stood up. "Let's get back to delving, shall we?"
The two companions would have begun their trek into the depths of the ancient barrow… if the halls were not nearly pitch black. The only source of light was a ember lit brazier down one end of the passage, but even that was not enough to illuminate the dark hall in front of them. It was a good thing they had come prepared. Adrien fished out a fresh, unlit torch and, after several tries with the flint and striker, it illuminated the hall more clearly with the shadows dancing behind detritus. They then proceeded on, and the hall they went down into was almost mistaken for a natural tunnel if not for its strange etchings of waves or wind patterns adorning the walls, all being shown by the torch's light. In the back of their minds, they wondered who lit the braziers, but it was just a thought for another time.
They soon took a left at the brazier, but what they spotted along the way around the corridor from the torchlight were strange urns. Some were oval in shape while others took on the primitive shape of a dragon. There could be valuables hidden in them, but they paid them no heed as they soon went right, down the steps to a corridor dimly lit by a candle stand. All the while, the only sounds they heard were the faint snapping of the torch, their own footsteps, and the gentle swaying and clanking of the hooked skillet. The next corridor had a lit brazier at the end, and with a dead rodent shown under the torch as well. No sooner did they see the dead rat did they finally have one thing answered for them. To their conclusion it could be more of the brigands were ahead, and they were leaving a trail behind. with that aside, they kept going but with more caution.
One problem was standing out, and Summer was looking at the skillet causing the racket. She felt like not wanting to give away their position, so without asking, she unhooked the skillet and held onto it in her right hand. Adrien noticed this, but he did not protest since he thought the same.
It was when they reached the next brazier did they spot some familiar form of ancient furniture. On one of the decaying shelves was a small green bottle, and Adrien took it and tucked it into his backpack for safekeeping, not really questioning how long it had been there. She did not make any comment so far. In fact, neither of them said a word as they kept going further and further through the passage. They were soon at another bend where it led them to a few steps down into a room, but they halted when they saw a bandit within that room with his back facing them.
"Wait," he whispered. They stayed silent, watching as the bandit did not make a move. They got off lucky that he did not notice them as he went forward towards a lever oddly built into the floor. He cranked it forward. Nothing seemed to happen at first, but suddenly they heard the sound of rapid whooshing, and they soon learned they were darts firing at the victim who activated them. Many of the darts pierced through his leather and his flesh and he was grunting in pain all over, but to Summer's horror, he suddenly keeled over and died.
"Now we know it's a trap," he announced unperturbed as they went to investigate, all the while he mentally thanked his partner for taking off the skillet. He kneeled down in front of the dead man and examined his body. His skin looked sickly pale, an obvious sign of what killed him so quickly. "He was overdosed with poison," he concluded as he pulled out the dart from his arm and looked at it. "These are poison darts. Still deadly even after so long."
"So that means we avoid the lever, but how do we get through the gate?" They both looked at the ancient gate which barred their passage.
"There should be a puzzle to solve…," he looked around and soon spotted to his left what look like pillars with ancient depictions of animals: a bird, a whale and another bird. "Perhaps there's something about these pillars…," he walked over to the first pillar to the left. He looked around both sides of it, seeing there were two other animals, and one of them was a serpent. Going on a theory which came to him, he set down the torch, held onto the pillar with both hands and tried to move it, which he then learned he could rotate it. "I see. These must be keystones used as a combination lock. But what's the code?"
"Do you think these heads could be the answer?" He looked to where she was pointing at and saw human head statues with animal depictions in their mouths, but the middle one was missing. It didn't take long when Summer pointed down at the missing head next to her. Then it all came together: serpent, serpent, whale.
"Huh, that was almost clever of them," he half complimented the long dead ancient nords' work of ingenuity. "Okay, we rotate these keystones to match the symbols shown from the heads. Care to give me a hand?"
She nodded in affirmation and went to rotate the symbol on the right to match that of the whale symbol, while Adrien rotated the left one to serpent. It took her some strength to rotate the keystone twice, but she got it to where it had to be. She stood back, letting him do the honors as he rotated the middle one to serpent. Then he walked over to the lever and made a firm grip with both hands.
"Now for the moment of truth." He cranked the lever forward. There was a very short second of silence, and in the back of his mind, he feared he may have fallen for another trap, but they suddenly heard ancient wheels turning as the gate was being pulled up. They released a breath they held in and relaxed.
"Okay, let's get going." He said after picking up the torch.
"Hold on. I think I saw something up there." She pointed up at the second level above the gate. She went up a stairway built to the right, she followed the path along the wall until she stood in front of some rotting book shelf. What she picked up was something small and familiarly red. "Found one," she announced as she showed it to him.
"Better take it with you. You're going to need it."
She stuffed the bottle in her backpack and got back down from the second level. Together they went past the raised gate and further into the halls of the barrow, where ahead of them was a chest with a table next to it, and sitting on top of the table was a small potion, a strange crystal-like gem and a book.
"Ah, a small soul gem. It'll fetch a small price though." Adrien stated.
"What's a soul gem?" She asked.
"Like it's namesake, crystals like this are used to capture souls, and then use those souls to refill enchanted weapons." He explained while still looking at it, oblivious to Summer's facial reaction.
"Captures… souls?" She was starting to get really nervous around that crystal now. She had always used her Aura for many things for her survival. In the past, she had witnessed Semblances that could tear souls apart or turn their Aura against them, the latter which almost ended her life. The return of those memories sent chills down her spine.
"Yes. Currently this one's empty. You'll know it's full when it's glowing." He finally looked back at Summer, only to finally understand why she spoke so nervously as he saw her looking pale. Then he remembered their conversation about Aura. "Oh, my apologies! I forgot you people use your souls."
"I didn't think stealing souls would be possible using a crystal." She assumed.
"Hm?" He raised a brow at that, then he realized he did not explain further. "Oh, no. That's not how it works. I was told the only way to capture a soul is when you cast a curse spell on them, and if you kill them before the time runs out, that's when the soul gem takes the soul. Besides, these soul gems are used to take in the souls of animals, not people. Black soul gems take human souls, but they've been outlawed a long time ago. So it's okay."
"Oh, I see. I guess that helps me feel a little better. But still…"
"I take it that souls are a sensitive subject?"
"In some aspects it is. I don't… feel like talking about it right now." She answered uncomfortably, still trying to shove away those haunting memories, much to hi, being unaware.
The knight did not say a word after that, but he did have something else to say when he saw she still had the skillet in her hand. "Hey, about that skillet." She looked up to him. "How about you put it in my backpack while we're at it? You'll be needing your hands."
"Oh… okay." She almost muttered as she opened his backpack, placed the skillet where it would fit, and closed it back up.
"Thanks for holding onto it." He told her, although he only got a nod in acknowledgment.
The two took left and found a hole ahead of them with a winding stairway leading down. They suddenly heard pitter patter and squeaking coming from the hole, and what came up from that stairway surprised Summer more than the knight. That definitely got her out of her spunk and back into reality. She instantly reacted frightfully by putting two of them down with her arrows. Adrien looked down at her in amusement, and it was after she suddenly shot a third one as it fell back down the hole where it came from did she reply.
"What!?" She asked in bewilderment.
"Didn't think I'd meet someone who would react so fast." He replied jokingly.
"I'm not taking any chances with those things!"
"That's fine by me." After she retrieved her arrows, and to her misfortune only two were intact, they were already down the stairs and were about to head further down the hall, but they caught sight of a couple items being left unattended on a stone table in front of them. One being a scroll and the other being a bottle that was smaller than the others.
"This one's a fireball scroll," he stated after inspecting the scroll in his hand. "And this one is a paralysis potion." He knew just by reading the label which said the name. "Both of them don't look old. How strange."
"Do you think their boss was leaving them behind?"
"Or maybe they were from the previous tomb raiders, who knows. Either or, these should come in handy for us. Here," he gave the potion to Summer. "Use this to coat one of your arrows. It helps to be more prepared."
She accepted the offered potion and coated her arrowhead with the poison. Throwing the empty potion away and stowing the poisoned arrow back in her quiver, the two went onward down the dark passage. As they strode onward somewhat in caution...
"Is... is someone coming? Is that you Harknir? Bjorn? Soling?" They heard the voice of a man coming from around the corner, though it almost sounded distant. "I know I ran ahead with the claw, but I need help!" He also revealed himself to be the one with the claw. At least they did not have to look further, but he said he needed help. Help with what, they wondered. That question soon revealed itself when they had come across an increasing amount of webbing everywhere. Seeing them had given the duo the familiar signs that frostbite spiders have inhabited the ruin, so Summer consciously nocked an unpoisoned arrow from her quiver. They took a left turn down the corridor, and had found that the entry into the next room had been blocked off by lots of webbing. That obstacle would not be for long, and Adrien had a burning torch to solve the problem as he placed the flames against the webs. They were set ablaze, opening the way as they went forward into the room which turned out to be a chamber… but it was not just a chamber.
The whole place was absolutely covered in webs, from the walls to the ceiling, but the two companions noticed two things within this chamber. There were wrapped up dead bodies of humans and critters strewn about on the floor, hanging from the ceiling and stuck to the walls. Secondly, they spotted half webbed large slitted sacks against the other end of the wall, leaving them to guess they contained eggs. They had accidentally stumbled upon a nesting chamber. The two were growing uneasy and cautious. So far they did not spot any spiders crawling around, and so they thought to themselves what kind of spider would make such a large nest.
"No. Not again. Help!" The thief cried out in terror of the horrifying answer to their question as they heard the distinctive sound of a frostbite spider coming from above them, but it sounded louder. What could only be described as the biggest spider the two had ever seen came down quickly from the large hole in the ceiling by her own webstring, only to land the rest of the way on her eight legs. Summer had faced many Grimm that were more horrifying than any beast she encountered in her career to the point of being almost desensitized, but seeing a big, living, breathing, eight legged freak like this one was a whole new level of terror.
The mother spider was in their direction and sent a large glob of venomous webbing at them, but their training kicked in and they split off and out of the way of its trajectory. She focused on Summer, thinking the human female would be easier prey, but she got struck with burning pain in her right eye by a torch. She turned in the offender's direction, and proceeded to attack him instead, ignoring the other human who struck her with an arrow to her side, but it's exoskeleton was too tough to pierce, much to the huntress's annoyance.
"Get that arrow ready," Adrien told her with his iron greatsword out and his helmet removed. "I'll keep it distracted."
Summer heard him loud and clear and took out the poisoned arrow. All she had to do was stick the arrowhead into the exposed fleshy joint connecting the body, but the true challenge was the spider's legs moving in an unpredictable manner. The only thing she could do was wait for the opportune moment to strike, but that meant leaving Adrien to deal with the spider's onslaught a little longer.
Speaking of who, the knight parried away at the spider's large serrated pedipalps, each swing cutting a chunk off of them whenever the creature tried to prod at his deadly defense. He would remind himself never to block them again after the miscalculated strong impact they brought when he first blocked just one, which did make him stagger a bit, but luckily he readjusted his situation and started using his defensive technique, which was to continuously swing his greatsword around in arcs before the giant bug could have a chance to overwhelm him. This had saved his life time and time again whenever he got surrounded by enemies, and any fool who dared to cross his threshold ended up with damaged weapons and fatal wounds. Without his helmet, there would be a higher chance he could get killed, but this gave him no restriction to his technique as he continued to whirl his sword around again and again.
The spider did not dare go in after him at first because of his sharp weapon, and each time she tried to get in after him, his sword would make a cut at her pedipalps, thus she kept getting pushed back while her pedipalps were getting more and more cut up. It was only when a large chunk of her pedipalp was cut off did she finally lose her patience, and she decided to try lunging at him with her fangs out, but that brash decision had unexpectedly become a big mistake. Just when the spider was about to go all in, she felt a sudden sting in a joint between one of her legs, and was suddenly frozen in place, not being able to move a muscle… and her mouth was still open.
"Now Adrien!" Summer called out to him after she successfully shot the giant spider's flesh between the exoskeletal leg and torso.
He heard her order loud and clear during the heat of battle, and can easily tell the spider wasn't moving. So he did not hesitate as he stopped what he was doing and stuck his greatsword through the monster's gaping mouth, being sure to avoid the giant fangs and screeching as he shoved the blade all in, hoping that he stabbed a brain or something that could end it. The poison's effects disappeared and she was able to move, but her body spasmed like crazy until she went limp like a stringless puppet. She went down with a thump and unmoving, and the two humans were uncertain if the spider was playing dead or else.
"Is it dead?" She asked with caution.
There was only one way to find out as he pulled the blood covered sword out of her mouth… nothing happened. He kicked it in the fang and went into a striking position, still nothing happened. After almost half a minute of waiting, both were able to sigh with relief.
"Well done, Summer," he thanked, impressed with her archery.
"It was nothing," she replied as she rubbed the back of her head. "It took some luck to make that shot."
"Thank Arkay, you killed it." The thief broke in, garnering their attention. "Now cut me down before anyone else shows up." He demanded with haste.
"First off, where's the claw?" Adrien asked as he put his greatsword away, as they walked up to the thief still trapped in the web.
"Yes, the claw. I know how it works. The claw, the markings, the door in the Hall of Stories. I know how they all fit together!" The light skinned dark elf exclaimed as if in desperation. "Help me down, and I'll show you. You won't believe the power the nords have hidden there."
His gut was telling him this was awfully too suspicious.
"You know, we could just demand he hand over the claw, but…," Summer pointed out at the elf's tied up situation.
"Fine," he answered unenthused, having no other option on the matter as he pulled out his iron dagger. "Let's see if we can get you down."
"Sweet breath of Arkay, thank you." The two humans went to work, trying to cut at the surprisingly tough webbing, but their sharp daggers were still getting through. "It's coming loose. I can feel it." They were now halfway done, and he was visibly able to move until the one strip of webbing finally set him free as he fell to the floor, revealing a passage behind the elf to their surprise. The dark elf, covered in webs from top to bottom, slowly got up.
"Okay. So, about that claw…?" Summer asked, but she noticed a smirk forming on his face as she felt something was wrong. And her feeling was right, but they reacted too late when the thief grabbed two balls from his hidden pockets and chucked them both to the floor. They exploded on impact into smoke in front of them, forcing the two humans to cough and gag incessantly, as they heard the thief making a run for the passage behind him.
"Fools. Why would I share the treasure with anyone?" He laughed in arrogance as he sprinted down the corridors away from them, hearing his footfalls rapidly fading. Hearing the thief laugh after tricking them made the knight's blood almost boil for falling for such a dirty trick, but he kept his mind leveled. Summer on the other hand...
"Damnit! *cough, cough* He's getting away!" Summer croaked out, coughing out the horrid taste of smoke in her lungs as said smoke was fading. She was about to go blindly after the thief, but she was halted by a hand gripping her shoulder.
"Wait," he said as he cleared his throat. "We'll catch up to him soon. We'll need the torch."
"But what if he-"
"Don't worry. He won't get far." Summer gave him a confused expression which demanded an explanation. "Remember, this is an ancient barrow. We have yet to see the draugr. I'll be right back."
He let go of her shoulder as he walked off to where he last saw his thrown torch and his helmet. Meanwhile, Summer thought back to their conversation on the road when he brought up the draugr. She still remained a bit skeptical, but if they did exist… she would not know what to think. If they do, then perhaps they might act like zombies and slow him down long enough to be caught up. She could not know for certain, however, just how dangerous these draugr might be. She was broken out of her thoughts when Adrien called out.
"Hey, you wanna get your arrows?" He reminded her.
Remembering where she shot her arrows, she went around the spider and recovered only one arrow. Adrien met up with her with his helmet back on and a torch still lit, but it looked like it was not going to last for much long.
"Okay, let's get going." He led the way as they entered the passage (strangely illuminated by candles) now opened to them. Through the passage, they entered a half spherical room full of large pots and many urns, all being under the light of the torch and whatever few candles were lit and a burning chandelier inside this room… which brought them back to the question before. Arvel was sprinting down this way, so there was no way he would light them all in that short span of time unless he used magic. The suspicion only seemed to grow within Summer more than the knight. There was nothing of use or value to take with them, save for nabbing the single soul gem placed on a tall candle stand, so they continued on. When they reached the short hall, they heard the sound of a metal bang and a kerfuffled yelp and moans of pain coming from where they were headed.
"What was that," she asked.
"Must be he got caught in a trap," he answered, but a few seconds went by and they heard a new sound, one that was uncomfortably familiar to their ears. It was the screaming of fear and a bloody struggle, and just before they could pick up the pace and go on a rescue, the thief's voice suddenly went silent. Whatever ended his life like that, it made Summer's blood almost run cold, and Adrien feeling a bit tense, but they had to trudge on.
They passed left of the brazier, but the new hall they walked into had a sudden change in both scenery and ominous atmosphere. Everything looked almost as damp as before, but it all felt colder for some reason. From what they could see as they walked cautiously, they were surrounded on both sides by what looked like narrowly spaced stone bunk beds embedded into the walls. Neither did not know what to make of this at first, but once they spotted a couple whole skeletons and a naked, withered yet preserved corpse, that was when they knew they reached the tomb. Their discovery needed no more answers to the thief's fate. Summer meanwhile, started getting this ominous feeling that she was not welcome here.
Adrien slowly pulled out his steel sword so as to not draw any attention, and Summer, while still keeping her weapon in bow form, nocked an arrow to be ready to shoot. They eventually reached the more open area of the tomb, with a single natural-looking column placed in the middle of it. There were more dead sleeping within the walls, but to the Huntress's astonished horror and bafflement to her skepticism, they spotted three undead warriors standing upright over the corpse of the thief… and they were looking in their direction with their menacing, glowing dead eyes. They were practically withered like their dead brethren still sleeping, but against all logic they were able to live and breathe. Their armor was definitely ancient and rusted from the passage of time, but they gave somewhat little protection, only covering what they deemed vital. Their weapons were just as old yet wicked in design, surprisingly still durable enough to be wielded after so long.
"Unbelievable, they really are real!" Summer spoke with exasperation.
Just as soon as they spotted the new intruders, one of the draugr suddenly spoke in a strange language, though dried and garbled, and then the undead warriors went into action with their weapons ready. The two living companions were ready for their next battle, and to get it started, Summer shot the shieldless draugr in the head, and the undead warrior's eyes went out like a candle before slumping to the ground. Being out of her baffled state of mind, these undead reminded her of a zombie horror flick she and her husband watched some time ago. As entertaining and almost disturbing as it was, she theorized that maybe these guys could go down with their head removed or their brain destroyed just like those zombies in the movie. Though it seemed too late to think about it, she was going to be feeling a little bad for invading their resting place after this, but once again she steeled herself. Now she had to deal with a foe that uses a shield.
Meanwhile, the draugr wielding a straight edged battle axe did a mighty downward chop to cut him in half, but centuries of rest and neglect have made his muscles weak, and his attempt became clumsy enough for the knight to block the blow with the edge of his sword near the guard, and swatted his torch at his face in reply which then went out. The undead warrior grunted as he backed away, if it did feel pain, and while he got distracted, the knight delivered a stab to his stomach which bled out black blood, pulled the sword out and made a killing blow to his unarmored head.
For the huntress's situation, she was backing away from the draugr when she pulled back her loaded bowstring. She took aim at his face, forcing the undead warrior to react too early by raising his ancient shield to cover his face as he still came at her, but it was a ruse as she shot at the exposed kneecap, causing him to stagger and walk haphazardly toward his living quarry. She looked behind her and realized she was almost being backed into a corner, so she switched to going into close quarters as she turned her bow back into her war axes before going into the melee. The sight of her transforming her bow did not faze the undead warrior as his single minded focus was to kill the intruder. The first thing he did when she got close was to push his shield to bash and stun her, but she stopped and backed away from the shield's reach, followed by the draugr swinging his axe down at her, but she took that attack as an opportunity as she bobbed left from the attack and hooked his ancient war axe with hers, keeping his weapon lowered and delivered her other axe to lop off his arm, and black blood oozed from his severed limb. The draugr grunted and swung his shield's edge at her, but she ducked underneath it, stepped sideways to the right and cut deep into the back of his uninjured knee, forcing him down to one knee. She then finished him off by strongly bringing her war axe down on his protected head, splitting easily through the rusted metal, the bone plating, and destroying his rotted brain. His eyes faded to nothing as he slumped sideways.
"I honestly didn't think these guys would be more… I don't know… Uh…" Summer commented as she tried to find the right word to say.
"Alive?" He answered for her.
"Yeah."
"I was a bit surprised they could speak, unlike the zombies I sometimes encounter. Right, I'll go check on our late friend over there." He pointed his thumb in the dead dunmer's direction.
She nodded and kneeled down getting to work in retrieving her arrow from his kneecap, soon realizing it was going to be more complicated than she thought. With Grimm, they would be more easy to retrieve since they turn to smoke upon death. The living or unliving, much to her revisit of memory lane and hands-on education, were becoming a different story.
Meanwhile, Adrien went to kneel down in front of the dead thief, but before he did so, he caught sight of what looked like a wall of spikes built to the stone wall. Experience tells him this obviously looked like a trap which made that sound earlier, but he wondered where they had placed the trigger mechanism. It did not take much to investigate when he looked down and saw an oddly shaped stone slab with wind patterns on the floor. That must be the pressure plate. His assumption earlier as the pieces all went into place were correct: the dark elf's greed blinded him from being aware of traps in his haste to this hall of stories, which could explain the other stab wounds on his body besides those from a sword.
Setting the thought aside for now, he got to work, opened the large satchel and rummaged through his contents when he felt something solid, sturdy and almost slim in his gloved hand. He pulled it out to reveal that it really was what they were after; the golden claw, and indeed it had the shape of a dragon's claw, just like the merchant said. Then he remembered what the thief said about the claw being connected to the hall of stories. Wanting to investigate further, he set the claw aside and plunged his hand back into the satchel. This time he looked into it to find something that would help him, and it did not take as much as a second to spot a folded leather journal among the contents. He took out the journal and skimmed through what was within. It mostly had his thoughts, caught some glimpses about his successes and failures when making heists, and had given the explanation to his title "The Swift" for his successful escapes from the guards. He also revealed he had a clever plan to steal the treasure all for himself and leave his partners and the bandits he hired behind to their doom. "No honor among thieves" they always say, but as he read further, he spotted something interesting.
My fingers are trembling. The Golden Claw is finally in my hands, and with it, the power of the ancient Nordic heroes. That fool Lucan Valerius had no idea that his favorite store decoration was actually the key to Bleak Falls Barrow.
Now I just need to get to the Hall of Stories and unlock the door. The legend says there is a test that the Nords put in place to keep the unworthy away, but that "when you have the golden claw, the solution is in the palm of your hands."
This was the last thing he wrote. He looked down at his hand. "What can that mean?" He muttered in wonder.
"I'm done," she announced as she walked up to him. She luckily had found a way to safely remove the arrow from the shattered kneecap, so there was no worry of losing another arrow this time. Same went for the draugr shot in the head. She looked down and noticed the claw. "Ah, you found it!"
"Yes, and what the thief said was true: It's a key to unlocking the door somehow."
"Then I guess the tablet will be behind that door?"
"Maybe. I'll take this journal with me, just in case." He stored the claw and the journal in his backpack. He pulled out a fresh new torch, and the torch head was set ablaze after several tries and stood back up. "Let's move on."
She nodded and turned, but she noticed the strange slab on the floor. "Hm? What's this?" She hovered her foot over it, but was then held back by a hand which came from none other than the knight himself. She looked in his direction puzzled. "What!?"
"That's a pressure plate. It connects to that wall of spikes ahead of you. Let's go around it."
Heeding his advice, and feeling a bit relieved and embarrassed of her attempted curiosity, the two went around the plate and went halfway over the ancient rubble, but they noticed an armored draugr resting there in the wall ahead of them, reminding them they could wake up if they made any more noise, but something did not make sense to both Adrien and Summer. The trap they heard and the battle they went through should have been enough to wake the dead. So why were they still sleeping? Summer, however, was beginning to have a different thought.
"Hey, Adrien?" Summer asked.
"Yeah?"
"Maybe, instead of trying to be quiet, we can just fight our way through. As much as I would like to avoid disturbing the dead…!" They noticed the draugr ahead them waking up to their chatter, and before the undead warrior could do so much as pull out his sword, Summer had noisily transformed her axes into a bow again, drew an arrow and killed the undead by a well placed shot in the head. She returned to her conversation, and realized nothing else happened strangely. "With the noise we're making, it'll be almost impossible to sneak past them."
"I think they already know," Adrien replied with a guess. "But yeah, my thoughts exactly. We'll take down any that get in our way."
Agreeing to disregard stealth, the two went on deeper through the tomb. They soon went into another spaced out area, and so far, nothing happened. They saw sleeping draugr all around them, some of them being absolutely naked or wrapped up in ancient linen, but there were a few who were fully decayed into skeletons. So far, none of them stirred from their intrusion. As they went further, however, that was when they woke up, as if to catch them both in a trap. As the undead made ready, there was just one flaw the two had spotted right away...
"Split up!"
As the draugr were about to pull out their weapons, the two living companions split off to fight their individual battles to finish the fight quickly. Adrien had cut the head off the first helmeted draugr in front of him who was about to use his war axe, while Summer headshotted one who was using an ancient bow. He fought the next one being armorless who attacked him with a war axe as well, and he used his sword to bat aside the axe, come up and smacked his bearded face with a torch to disorient him before plunging his sword down his rotted chest. Summer went left and against a female draugr, judging by the tattered clothing and strands of hair, who swung her war axe down at her, but the huntress used the handle of her bow to block the attack, shove it aside and stab her in the stomach with the axe blade before kicking her away. Not letting the undead warrior recover, she rushed in and stabbed her in the brain. And so the battle ended there.
"Well, that was quick," she commented to herself before heading to recover her arrow… but realized the arrow had snapped in two. Now she was down four arrows.
He nodded, and they continued on, but their momentum was shortly halted. They would be heading further if not for the short passage being rigged with three swinging blades of death.
"Hm, gotta hand it to their ingenuity, but how do we get through this," she muttered/asked herself more than anything as the two observed the swinging blades. They both saw the lever at the other end, but Summer was somewhat stumped as to how to get over there, but she soon noticed the timing of the swings. 'Maybe if I can time it right, I can sprint to the other side.'
The knight had a different idea when he noticed the space between each of the swinging blades. 'Maybe if we time it right, we'll stop at each safe spot until we reach the other side.'
"I have an idea!" Both of them said it at the same time, and both of them looked at each other with surprise.
"Oh-uh, please, go ahead," she sincerely insisted.
"I think we should take this nice and slow. See those spaces between each of the blades?" He pointed at them. "After a swing, we move onto one safe spot to the next. What was your idea?"
"I was thinking of making a sprint for it. I'm a fast enough runner. All I need is to time it right and I'll reach the other side."
He pondered on that idea, and after looking back at the swinging blades, he noticed the pattern too, but that small amount of time seemed too risky. He looked back down at her. He did not want to doubt her abilities, but there's only a time when you must question their validity. "Are you sure about that? There's a chance you'll get sliced before reaching it."
She looked back at the swinging blades for a moment, but that moment had made a reminder to her that she could no longer activate her Aura, and she frowned at that. She could be fast enough without it, but just how far was the question. Her expression was all the knight needed to know.
"I say that's out of the question. Let's go with my idea, then." She looked up to him and gave a firm nod, though to some small reluctance. She transformed her bow back into the axes and slid them back into their holsters. The two stood at the front of the swinging blades with Adrien leading the way as he held his sheathed sword up vertically. "Alright, follow my lead." After a swing, he moved into the space between the blades, and when the blades swung again, he was absolutely safe where he stood, but the space he realized now was just dangerously narrow. One wrong step and either his gear or cloak would get caught, or worse. Following his lead after the next swing, she moved onto the space where he last stood while the knight went ahead to the next space. They took one space after the next after each swing, and soon Adrien was on the other side as he pulled down the lever, and the swinging blades retracted to their places and stopped, thus letting Summer walk up to him without issue.
"...Right, safe and sound," he commented.
They would continue around the corridor, but they idly noticed a hanging pot above them with a candle inside. Dismissing it as some strange ornament, they headed down an incline, but were then met with a waking draugr on the far side of the hall. Adrien reacted instantly by pulling out his longsword while sprinting and mightily removed his head off in one sweeping motion before the fight had even started. The huntress had caught up to him with her bow ready by the time it was done, but another draugr woke up at another far end of the hall, and this time he was not alone as two more undead warriors showed up from around the corner with their weapons already out. The two of them made a combat stance to make a stand, but Summer noticed those same hanging pots from before, dangling over strange puddles of multicolored liquid down this stretch of hallway. She made a theory as to why and went to try it.
"Hold on," she told him.
He was curious as to why until she released her arrow at the rope tied to one of the pots, watching it fall right on top of the three pursuing undead. The fragile pot shattered, releasing the familiar liquid onto the undead, and the burning candle which made contact with it caused a fiery reaction. They quickly realized now that the liquid was flammable oil, catching both the oil on the floor and the three oil stained draugr on fire. Though caught by surprise, the burning draugr who was at the lead still went after the living intruder with his axe raised. The knight rectified that by getting in front of the huntress and harshly kicked the draugr back to his burning brothers. It surprisingly did not take much effort as the burning undead was sent back two feet.
They were all in fiery agony, grunting and flailing until the glow of their eyes went out. When Summer breathed in through her nose, she felt nauseous at the smell of roasted flesh mixed with burning oil. It brought a flashback to yesterday when Helgen burned: the scent of roasted people and homes, and the deaths happening all around her. She didn't think much of it back then. She was being too focused on being a huntress as best she could and surviving.
"Nicely done Summer." He congratulated her in using the trap against them, but noticed her disgusted expression as her hand covered both her mouth and nose.
She nodded back in thanks with an appreciative smile if not for her hand hiding it. "It's a good thing I noticed it." Unfortunately for her, she realized that she lost her arrow to the fire. So now she was down another arrow, and this was now starting to frustrate her.
Small loss aside, the two companions proceeded onwards around the still burning bodies and went further into this narrow hall without any more opposition blocking their way. One thing they finally noticed was that these halls were somewhat littered with burning candles. Before they went right the way the draugr came, the knight noticed something glinting on one of the shelves dug into the wall. Curiously, he merely picked it up with two fingers and discovered right away the famous emperor's face on the most common coin found anywhere in the empire.
'A gold Septim, huh?' He thought to himself while inspecting the coin. As far as he could remember as a former Fighters Guild member, one would very often come across gear and coins left behind by those who never made it back alive. Being an adventurer or mercenary has always been proven to be a dangerous profession, but a very lucrative one when playing the cards right.
"Hm? What's a gold Septim doing here?" She asked when she looked at what he picked up.
"Like I said before, this must've come from the previous tomb raiders. Comes to show that those poor saps didn't make it."
Going right and around another bend, they went through a passage which went upwards, and after going down an incline, they were then entering a cavernous brazier lit room where the stream flowed from within the cave wall to their left; melted snow coming from the mountain itself as was evident. There was a bridge going over the stream, and beyond that were two of what they would guess were sarcophagi and an ancient looking treasure chest. One problem from where they stood was the assumption of being at a dead end, but all it took was a little investigating to find out. They were close to the bridge when a sarcophagus to the left burst open to reveal an awakened draugr who stepped out of it and drew out his ancient battle axe.
"I got this," she declared as she drew back her bow and fired at the charging draugr, right in the eye socket. The steel arrow pierced the brain and the force knocked back the undead warrior as the weapon slipped from his withered dead hands and fell backwards to the ancient floor.
"Good shot." He complimented with nonchalance, and they proceeded forward with their investigation of the cavernous room. It surprisingly did not take much effort to pull out the arrow as she first assumed. After that, they followed the stream to a rusty portcullis barring their path, but lucky for them there was a lever on the ground placed next to it. Before moving forward, Adrien went over to the treasure chest, set it down on the floor and opened it to see the contents inside. Beside all the trinkets that had been rusted away by the centuries, only a few items of value were taken out: a medium sized bag of Septims, a small endurance potion, and five iron arrows for Summer's quiver.
The Huntress did not need a keen eye to tell how shoddy and cheap they looked compared to her steel arrows. The arrowheads were made of iron, simple and pointed to pierce flesh and pull out, but the feathers were badly done in a way that they may not last long in the air. The shaft itself was the only thing decently done, but looked more prone to break. In fact, these were the same arrows that the bandits were using. As for her opinion on the rest of the loot, she did not make a comment on it and kept the subject to herself for now.
With the new arrows now in her quiver, the two walked away from the chest and to the portcullis. Adrien pulled back the lever with just one hand, and the rusted metal obstacle blocking their way lifted up. With that out of the way, they went on through, following the stream until they reached a dead end where the stream went through rubble with a light shining through the cracks. There a path to their right however, and they went that way to find more streams running down and crisscrossing the cavernous passage. They went further on, and they eventually went right, down and around an inclining pathway until they stopped when they saw a female draugr patrolling a natural bridge, being somewhat illuminated by a large hole in the ceiling. There was no need to say anything, and the knight watched as the huntress took out an arrow, pulled back the bowstring, and sniped the oblivious draugr in the back of the head while her back was to her. The undead warrior flopped down onto the snow covered floor after that.
The knight nodded in affirmation, and the two took the declining path down to their right and onto the path of the bridge. Summer kneeled down next to the dead warrior and went to work pulling out the arrow while he stood watch. Taking it out successfully, she put it back into her quiver and was about ready to move on, but she had grown curious as to how far down this hole was they were standing over. She leaned over the edge to take a peek, but her face then went pale once again by the ghastly sight of what was down below, or how many were down there. It was an image that would surely be burned into her memories for the rest of her life.
"Adrien…?" She uttered out somewhat shakily in a troubled tone. He stopped looking at both passages and turned his attention towards the huntress who was still looking down over the edge petrified. He wondered why she looked that way and looked over the edge with her, but he now knew why, and he did not even need the torch to uncover what lies below. There were many bodies down there where a stream ran through. There were several skeletons still wearing their rusted gear and weapons, all dried up with not a single trace of rotted meat on them. There were even bones scattered everywhere leaving no discernible way to count. There were a few other bodies that were still rotting away, and only one looked fresh. Now he knew a disturbing understanding when he saw one, though his long survival experience on the field had almost left him damn near desensitized.
This was where they dumped the bodies of the intruders. Perhaps the Nords' fearful superstition had more reason behind them after all.
"Come on, Summer. Let's keep moving." He stated, not wanting the poor woman to be lingering at the sight of this ghastly scene. There was no need to tell her twice. She jerked away from the sight and continued on alongside him.
They went further into the cave and away from the bridge, and after following up the path and around two bends, they were soon inside the familiar ruins once again, although this time the braziers and candles showed obvious tree roots which had grown out of the cracks in the walls and all over the floor. This part of the tomb must be this closely situated under the trees they assumed. They continued on up the passage until they spotted a new room. Once there, they were nearly caught by surprise by a greatsword wielding draugr, who appeared out of nowhere and would have bisected the knight had he not reacted in time. Now the undead guardian was between the two of them with his glowing sights on the knight.
Summer reached for her arrows. Since she was this close to the distracted draugr, she believed it would be easy, but she did not plan on aiming for the head, that would be too risky. Instead, she shot an iron arrow into the unarmored part of the draugr's back. It was good that she refrained from having to fully pull her bowstring back.
The sudden impact staggered the draugr forward and his onslaught was interrupted, and Adrien took the given opportunity to kick him back. Summer noticed the undead guardian shambling backwards, and she responded by stabbing the back of his skull with the blade tip of her bow. He went stiff at first, but then she kicked him forward to pull out her weapon as he fell flat to the floor. She heard the distinct snap of wood to tell her that her arrow had broken.
"That was quick work." He complimented the help as he put away his sword. "Thanks."
She nodded.
The knight turned and walked over to a chest that was conveniently nestled between two piles of rubble. At this point she really could not hold it back anymore.
"Adrien, are you really certain we should be stealing from this place?" She finally asked her concern over his questionable standing as a knight. "Doesn't this go against your moral code?"
He sighed through his nostrils and for a moment, he contemplated on what to say. She was not wrong to call him out on this. He can easily chalk this all up to his old habits from back in the guild, but he felt these somewhat fresh items and Septims did not belong in a place like this at all. In a way, this was more like a recovery than stealing.
"Summer," he started as he turned back to face her, "do you remember the items we kept finding back the way we came?"
She nodded, curious to know what he had to say.
"Those clearly did not belong here. And remember when I said they were from those who came before us? I can clearly consider this as a recovery mission for those who died here. I can already tell these draugr don't use the Septims. In fact, I don't think the ancient nords ever had a coin currency of their own back then. You'd be surprised to find items like these left behind in caves or dungeons, so I say it's better we use them than let them keep it. Don't you think so?"
She was quiet about it. She still wanted to believe that what he was doing was wrong at first, but when she looked down at the dead draugr, it brought her back to the ghastly sight below the bridge, how all those treasure hunters who sought adventure ended up dying in vain. It was as if these zombies were the murderers and thieves, and it was up to them to take these items back from them, and in a way, they were avenging the fallen at the same time. Of course he was right. She knew that everything was not as simple as black and white, but the little things such as these… should be considered with an open mind.
She did not say anything, but she nodded in agreement. He nodded back for the acknowledgement, and returned to the task of opening the chest. It was locked when he tried to lift the lid, so he pulled out the lockpicks and went to work. It took a few tries as he fiddled with the lock, but he got it unlocked in the end. He put them away and lifted the lid to reveal… not very much. Only a small mana potion and a small coin purse that looked very old. Curious, he undid the knot and opened the bag, pulling out one silver Septim to see… that it was not a Septim. Confused but more curious, he closed the chest and poured out the rest of the bag's contents onto the lid. The total was thirty Septims; one silver and five coppers if he went by the current currency, but none of them bore the face of Tiber Septim nor the creed. Rather, they had the face of a previous dynasty before their great conqueror came to power.
"What's going on?" Summer asked as she leaned over his shoulder. "You seem to be more fixated on the coins for some reason."
"Take a look at this." He handed the copper coin to her to inspect. "Do you notice one thing that's different?"
She narrowed her eyes at the copper coin held by her fingers and adjusted its position under the light to get a better look. And surely enough, she did notice it too.
"That's not the same face," she answered. "Who is this?"
"That is the face of Reman Cyrodiil." He answered. "Founder of the Reman Dynasty, and the second dynasty before the eventual reign of Tiber Septim. I'm surprised after all these centuries that these coins would still exist, and in some good condition."
"Do you think they can still be used?"
"I don't know. I have never seen money like this circulating the economy since I was born. Perhaps we should ask Lucan when we get back." He gathered all the coins and put them back in the purse, storing it and the little bottle into his backpack before closing the chest again and continued their excursion into the tomb. Placing his hands to the large ancient double doors and opening them, they journey further into the inner sanctum.
Adrien: 59 Copper + 17 Silver + 1 Gold = 533 Septims
Summer: 0 Copper + 0 Silver + 0 Gold = 0 Septims
Reman: 5 Copper + 1 Silver + 0 Gold = 30 Reman
Pouches of coin: Unknown
A/N: Right, another chapter done, and this is only part 2. The next chapter I promise will be the final part to the Bleak Falls Barrow story and onto the main story.
As you can tell, I came up with an explanation for why there are Septims and other fresh items everywhere in ancient nord ruins. When playing a fantasy rpg game, you really don't think much of it when you find items in the most unlikely places, but when you start writing a story and you want to add some realism with an explanation into a game, that's when things start to hit you and you've got to change a few things to explain why or how they got there. It is both fun and difficult to create, especially when you're world building.
Now as for the added twist of the dubbed 'Reman' coins, I figured I would stick my hand into creating more lore into Tamriel. If you think about it, what kind of coinage did the first and second era look like before the Septims came about? Simple; they had the face of emperors who were the most notable and famous. Thinking back on it now, maybe I should've had those coins be like our currency, each of them bearing the face of the three famous rulers. Well, it's too late to change that now, so I'll have to make due with a backstory to explain why they're rare. I did think about adding ancient nord coinage into Skyrim, but I considered that it would not make much sense. The ancient nords from Atmora I believe back then never discovered or invented coinage as currency, probably they used livestock or other resources as their source of currency maybe.
Anyways, shoutout goes to CruxMDQ for his amazing proofreading and suggestions, and for those who are curious, he's an author of the fanfic "Starwatch" which he's still currently updating, and I would like to encourage you to give his story a good read.
This is Kyro2009, signing off.