Loki and Ralof quietly watched from behind the large columns along the entrance to Ustengrav as the battle raged between a group of bandits who had been occupying the ruin and a group of dark mages intent on using the crypt for necromantic purposes. It seemed the wisest tactic to let the two groups kill each other off and then pick off the survivors, though, being a true Nord, Ralof did not find this to be an honorable way to fight.
The bandits really stood little chance against the mages and the battle was over in mere minutes. Loki and Ralof then made quick work of the four remaining mages with a volley of arrows since they had no idea anyone else was in the tomb.
It had been nearly a month since the battle with Mirmulnir at the watchtower, and much had happened in that time. Loki had chosen to bring Ralof with him on the journey to High Hrothgar and leave Hadvar and Uthgerd in Whiterun to work on recruitment. Lydia was left to tend to getting Breezehome ready for her new Thane and his new daughter, who was under the care of Ysolda for the time being.
Loki and Ralof had traveled to Ivarstead going through the ruins of Helgen. No bandits had taken up residence there yet, so no one disturbed them as they took a long, silent look at the charred execution block in the middle of town.
The climb up the "seven thousand steps" seemed more like seventy thousand to them as the icy winds cut through them constantly. Ralof couldn't understand why Loki insisted on stopping to read every shrine on the way up the mountain.
Meeting with the Greybeards wasn't at all like Loki had expected, since he already knew all the words they tried to teach him. Master Arngeir was completely astounded at Loki's knowledge of Dovahzuul and the words of power. He did, however, manage to give Loki a much more in depth philosophy behind The Way of the Voice and it's passive lifestyle before sending them off on a mission to recover the horn of Jurgen Windcaller. Loki considered bypassing the whole quest and going directly back to Riverwood to get it from Delphine, but he decided against it figuring he needed the experience anyhow and it would give him the chance to explore this beautiful country much more in depth.
The journey back down the mountain was much faster with the two cutting between the switchbacks in the trail by snowboarding on their shields. It was the most fun Loki had had since he arrived in Skyrim. The two had stayed the night in Ivarstead but since they got down the mountain so early in the day, they decided to chase ghosts in the "haunted" tomb before the evening meal. They didn't kill Wyndelius Gatharian, but instead brought him before the town and showed everyone how he was pretending to be a ghost. The guards took him and headed for Riften to face the Jarl's justice.
Heading to Morthal on their way to Ustengrav the two passed through the ruins of the Labyrinthian where Loki took on Shalidor's Maze in order to obtain the Diadem of Savant and learn its enchantment. With proper enchanting and a bit of luck, Loki would never have to worry about running out of magicka again.
Arriving at Ustengrav, they found several dead bandits outside the ruin and one mage standing watch. Ironically, the one watching never saw the arrow coming.
Now they found themselves silently stepping over corpses, making their way through a tomb that Loki already knew was going to end without the horn.
At one point Loki led them down a corridor that appeared to be a dead end. There was several gold pieces on a table by the wall, but not much else. Ralof just kind of huffed when Loki opened a secret door in the wall leading down to a chest full of soul gems.
"You would think I would be used to you knowing these things by now, but it still seems so strange."
"Don't worry, it's still kind of strange to me too, but I'm not complaining. I would have loved to have had this kind of knowledge about my life back home."
As they made their way down into the Ustengrav Depths, they stepped out to the edge of the cliff overlooking the ruins and the river below. Loki was absolutely amazed at the sight of such a huge place underground.
"Wouldn't it be amazing for the Nords of Skyrim to actually use these great halls again instead of just leaving them to the dead?"
The two made their way down to the gates where Loki did a whirlwind sprint to the other side, then they lured the spiders out onto the pressure plates to kill them with fire, and down into the burial chamber to find Delphine's note. Ralof looked a bit upset, but Loki assured him it wasn't in vain and they would get the horn from her.
As they exited the mine, Loki plotted a course North to the High Gate ruins.
"I thought we needed to head back to Riverwood?" Ralof said with a lost look on his face.
"We will, but we've got plenty of time. Delphine isn't going anywhere, and I have so much to do, I figured I could get some of the adventuring done along the way, while we're close by. There's an ancient Dragon priest in these ruins and it will give me the perfect opportunity to test out my new weapon I had Adrianne forge for me before we left Whiterun."
"I still don't see how you think that thing is a weapon."
"I'll explain it later," Loki said laughing, "we need to hurry, someone is waiting for us."
"What? Seriously? But how… Oh for the love of Talos, nevermind! I should know better than to ask." Ralof's confused look only made Loki laugh harder.
As they entered High Gate Ruins and started making their way down through the corridors they found several draugr lying dead on the floor. Hearing commotion in the next room, Ralof drew his di-katana and Loki's hands began to crackle with electricity. They entered a large room with a table in the center, probably used for embalming the dead before they were interred in their final resting places. At the other side of the room was a balcony with a podium like table at the center and wooden ramps on both sides. A woman was running down the ramps being pursued by two very large hulking draugr and looking very much out of breath and magicka.
Ralof charged forward past the woman and with a powerful two-handed swing he sliced through one of the draugr, his blade severing from the left shoulder to the right hip. Loki slammed his hands together and the lightning bolt he threw at the second draugr sent it flying and convulsing with spasms as it also charred him to ash.
After dispatching the threat, the two men walked over to where the woman had taken cover behind the embalming table to check on her and offer assistance.
A fairly fit looking Nord woman with braided hair wearing fur looked up at them rather defensively at first, but then realized they meant her no harm and were not here to rob her.
"Are you alright Miss?" Ralof said, offering a hand to help her up.
"Uh, yeah, I'm ok. I just bit off more than I could chew." The young lady said, breathing heavily. "There were just too many of them, and I ran out of magicka. All I could do was run. Thank you for saving me, thank you both."
Loki pulled a small vial of blue potion from his pouch and handed it to the woman.
"This should help you restore your magicka. What's your name? And why are you running around in a draugr filled crypt alone might I ask?"
Loki pretended not to already know the answers to his questions so as not to alarm the woman and also so Ralof could better understand what was going on.
"I'm Anska, and I am here searching for a scroll that is supposed to confirm my family bloodline all the way back to Ysgramor himself. It is supposed to be buried with Vokun, the dragon priest who is entombed here."
"And you thought it wise to take on the undead all by your lonesome, did ya?"
"Well, not exactly. I didn't know the dead would be so… lively." Anska downed the vial and began to glow with a blue hue. Feeling very well recharged she shook her head as if she had just taken a shot of strong whiskey.
"Wow, that is some potent stuff."
"My own blend, highly distilled." Loki replied with a smirk. "Well then, let's go find your scroll. Oh, and I have dibs on Vokun's mask."
"Dibs?" Anska looked questioningly at Loki and then to Ralof for possible translation.
"You'll have to forgive him, he's not from Skyrim, or Tamriel for that matter. Apparently that means he's claiming it where he comes from." Ralof kind of shrugged as he explained Loki's strange vocabulary to Anska.
"Oh, ok." Anska looked back at Loki as though she now saw him as a strange outlander. "Then you can have 'dibs' on whatever you want in here, except my scroll of course."
"Of course, my lady. Are you feeling ready to proceed?"
Anska shook her head yes and the three began the descent into the crypts.
Deeper and deeper they went, making fairly short work of the undead guarding the tomb who were no real match for the three of them.
As they passed through the Hall of Stories and made their way to the final door, Loki reached to his shoulder and unslung a long cloth bag that had been on his back. From the bag he pulled a very strange looking staff made from dwarven metal that resembled a large version of a CB antenna with two large coils forged in it several centimeters from the top.
"You finally going to tell me what that thing is?" Ralof asked looking at the staff in Loki's hand.
"I call it the Lightning Rod. It's an amplifier for my storm magic."
"How did you get a blacksmith to make you a magic staff?"
Loki chuckled, "The staff isn't magic, it's just metal and dragonbone. It's coiled in such a way that it takes the lightning from my magic and amplifies it one hundred times higher. Electrical engineering was one of the courses I took at my college. The staff basically acts as a transformer increasing the voltage."
Ralof had learned to trust Loki's knowledge, but he still looked leary at some of his wild ideas.
"And you're sure this thing is strong enough to take on a dragon priest? I've heard legends about how powerful these guys are even after death."
"Well, I know it works as far as fuctionally. I fired a few bolts of lightning through it after Adrianna finished it. This will be it's first combat test though. May the Nine be with us." Loki gave Ralof a smile and pushed open the door.
Inside they found a large room with ascending levels and a sarcophagus at the top. No sooner had the three entered the room than to top blew off of the sarcophagus and out came the scariest thing Loki had seen since Alduin landed on the wall above his head in Helgen.
Vokun was nothing more than a skeleton held together by leathery skin that looked as dry as parchment. The cloth of his priest robes was in tatters, but the scale-like armor over the shoulders, arms, and chest were still intact.
The priest began to fly across the room toward them, fireballs forming in his hands as he prepared to destroy whoever had disturbed his rest.
Loki cast an invisibility spell on himself and ran to the right side of the room, Anska casting stoneflesh on herself to withstand an attack, and Ralof diving behind the column on the left for cover as he readied his bow.
Loki found out quickly, as he dodged fireballs, that the dragon priest did not depend on sight to know where intruders were in his tomb.
I guess that would make sense since his eyes rotted away ages ago. Loki chastised himself for underestimating the undead priest's senses.
Anska cast a flaming familiar that attacked the priest and distracted him for a few seconds. That was all the time it took for the priest to destroy it, but it was enough for Loki to take aim and fire.
Holding the staff with both hands Loki cast his lightning spell up the shaft of the staff. As the power flowed through the coils it amplified over and over until it reached the top of the staff and then a bolt arced across the room so strong it made a thunder clap in its wake. Hitting the dragon priest in the chest, the arc of electricity melted part of the armor scales of the priest's robe and sent him flying backwards into the wall above one of the standing sarcophaguses on the side of the room. Magicka swirled around him as he recomposed himself; he was clearly injured and weakened but not nearly as much as Loki had hoped for.
Ralof was firing arrows that did little more than annoy Vokun and Anska was casting fireballs trying to distract the priest so Loki could get another shot. Vokun was bombarding Loki with fireballs as he closed the distance between them, his feet hovering just above the floor. Loki's ward was failing fast, so he fired a simple sparks spell through the staff to stun Vokun and give himself time to take cover behind the next column. Then, grasping the staff with both hands again, he stepped out from cover and fired sparks from both hands, holding the arc of electricity on the dragon priest and bringing him to the floor.
Seeing the opportunity, Ralof ran up behind the Vokun and brought his di-katana down through the back of his neck, beheading the priest; but also shocking Ralof so bad he flew backward and hit the floor unconscious.
Loki and Anska ran over to Ralof and both began casting healing spells on him, hoping to revive him. When the Nord didn't wake up, Loki checked for a pulse. Finding none, he unfastened the breastplate of his armor as fast as he could and began chest compressions.
Anska held her healing spells in place while Loki desperately gave his companion CPR.
"1..2..3..4..5.." then Loki gave Ralof a huge breath. "1..2..3..4..5.." *Breath*
Cough* cough* The Nord finally began to breathe on his own again.
"Thank Kynareth!" Anska exclaimed.
Ralof began to come to, weak and confused.
"What happened?"
"You got hit by the electricity I was firing into Vokun. It ran up your sword and right through you. You're lucky to be alive."
Anska looked at Loki, "That was amazing, what you did. Pumping his heart, breathing for him. Where did you learn to do something like that?"
"It's called CPR. It's kind of common knowledge where I'm from."
The two helped Ralof to his feet and Anska helped him get his armor situated while Loki walked over to examine the remains of Vokun. As he took the mask from Vokun's severed head he could feel the power radiating from it. Deciding against trying it yet, he slid it into his pouch and went to retrieve his staff he had dropped when he raced to help Ralof.
"You truly are a powerful mage. You brought him down with more power than I've ever seen from a sparks spell" Anska commented.
"Thanks, but it wasn't my sorcery that did it, it was science. Without the staff he would have destroyed me for sure."
"But you designed it." Ralof interrupted. "You are a very impressive… what did you call it again?.. Ah, yes, a very impressive Nerd."
Loki could only chuckle, slightly regretting using the term to describe himself to the Nords.
As they made their way to the next room, Loki could hear the chanting coming from the wall at the rear. Walking down to it he could feel the power emanating from it. Even though he knew the word already, it still called to him. This time the power didn't blind him like before, but flowed into him and merged perfectly with the knowledge he had gained from Mirmulnir.
He turned to the table, looking through the scrolls that lay on it until he found the one they had been searching for. Walking over to Anska, "I believe this is what you are looking for Madam."
Anska read the scroll and then began to smile and kind of bounce around, giddy as a school girl.
"Oh thank you, thank you. Thank you both so much. I never could have gotten it without your help."
Ralof opened the chest by the exit to see if there was anything worthwhile inside.
"Hey Loki, got any idea what this thing is?"
Loki reached in and picked up a large, white crystal and immediately thought his head was going to explode as a voice yelled:
"A NEW HAND TOUCHES THE BEACON! LISTEN, MORTAL…"