Chapter Three: Bandits
Ralof had disappeared into the trees, and I had only a vague idea of where to head. North, he had said, where the village of Riverwood and his aunt awaited. The first objective was to reach the main road, which a short stroll down the path in front of me accomplished. In front of me stood a stone watchtower, a group of warriors wearing the standard Hold guard's uniform, their grey-blue cloaks and clothing under their chainmail indicating their Falkreath origin. I was dressed in Imperial armor, and Ralof had said that the Empire held sway here, so I approached them. They could probably give me directions, and maybe point me towards somewhere where I could change out my armor.
As I approached, a pair of them noticed and walked out from the tower, moving towards me with their hands on their weapons. A third guard stayed at the tower and unlimbered his bow. All of which was understandable. A bloody dragon had just flown over, and now a man in heavy armor who was extremely heavily armed had appeared out of the woods.
"Hold!" one of the guards shouted. "State your business!"
"Helgen was attacked by that beast that just flew over!" I called back. "I made it into the keep, took weapons and armor from dead Imperial and Stormcloak soldiers just in case, then hoofed it out of there." I had learned to lie smoothly after years of operating on the frontier with Aldmeri Dominion. Their agents may be arrogant, but they aren't stupid and lying to them takes work.
"What was that thing?" the second guard asked. Curiosity had largely replaced hostility, but their hands remained on their weapons, the first gripping an iron battleaxe and the second gripping the hilt of a mace hanging from his belt.
"A dragon," I told them somberly.
"A dragon?" It was the first guard again. "There haven't been dragons in Skyrim in… I don't know how long, but it's been a long time."
I nodded. "Aye. And now they're back. May I pass? I'd prefer to get to Riverwood and get out of the open in case the Ni- the Eight-damned thing comes back," I said.
One of the guards chuckled at my slip. "Aye, you can go. And don't worry about your little slip of the tongue, we all do it."
"Thank you, kinsman," I responded. "I've been out of the area for several years, could you point me in the direction of Riverwood?"
"I can," the second guard said. "Though it comes to mind that there are some bandits in the area we don't have the manpower to pursue, and if you want to pick up some less conspicuous armor without having to pay for it…"
That sounded good to me, as I only had about fifty septims from looting corpses. "I could be persuaded to help you out," I said, smiling at them.
"Excellent," guard number two said. "There's a small camp just west of here, and a mineshaft full of the bastards to the east. Oh, and since you're being so helpful I'll let you know: there's a group of standing stones just down this road if you want to pay your respects."
"You have my thanks, kinsmen," I told them. "I'll get to it, then."
I started walking down the left hand road, headed west towards the bandit camp first. When I started hearing voices, I slipped into the trees by the road and worked my way closer, moving from tree to tree and bush bush. I was no master of stealth, but I had spent enough time ambushing and spying on Thalmor and their pet Bosmer and Khajiit to know what I was doing. Once I was close enough, I lay on my stomach and crawled closer until I could see them.
They were obviously bandits, and there were three of them standing around. One watched the small trail to the road, an iron shield like my own sitting on his arm while a steel sword stayed sheathed at his side. His entire body was covered in iron armor that I would soon be appropriating. The first of the two standing by a fire in the middle of a small circle of tents wore leather armor, and carried a hunting bow and a small steel dagger. The third wore hide armor and carried a steel battleaxe. Three on one, and the three were bandits who would have very little training, not to mention that I could see that all their weapons and armor were in a state of disrepair. The exception was the man in iron armor. His armor was scrubbed until it shone and in good repair. I wanted his armor, so I wanted to avoid damaging it. I withdrew further back into the trees, then came up to a crouch and readied my weapons.
Once I was ready I crept back in, my bow ready. Once I was close enough, I raised, sighted, and fired in one motion, then dropped my bow, drew my greatsword and charged, the sword raised in both hands. As I entered the clearing I saw the sentry on his knees, both hands around the arrow in his throat while he choked on his own blood. The other two were slow to react, and I closed the distance before they managed to get their weapons free. My greatsword cleaved down on the woman with the battleaxe while her hands were occupied trying to free it from the straps on her back. It hit her on the shoulder just left of her neck, and tore through the armor and deep into her torso. I wheeled away from the corpse, leaving the blade buried in it, as some sense told me to move. I had been fighting life and death battles for years, and my soldier's sense was well-honed. An arrow hissed through the space my head had just occupied, and I jerked one of my daggers from its sheath. The archer drew back his bow, sending another arrow flying at me, and I snapped up my armored arm to cover my face. The arrow bounced off, and I charged, drawing my other dagger as I did. I closed on the archer, then swept my left hand back and threw the dagger. I was right-handed and the dagger wasn't weighted for throwing, guaranteeing I would miss my target. But he didn't know that, so he jerked to one side in surprise, slowing his next shot and giving me enough time to slam my knee into his crotch and bury my other dagger in his chest.
I stood in the middle of the campground, three corpses around me that had each been killed in different ways. One with an arrow in his throat, one with a greatsword in a massive slash through her chest, and one with a dagger in his heart. I sighed and collected my weapons, cleaning my bloodied dagger, sword, and arrow before returning them to their sheaths and quiver. Then I started hunting the area around the third body for the dagger I had thrown. After a few minutes I gave it up as a lost cause and turned to the bodies.
The archer's corpse yielded up a steel dagger, a superior replacement for my lost blade. The heavily armored warrior likewise yielded a steel sword, which I used to replace my Imperial iron sword. The archer's hunting bow was also superior to my longbow, so I replaced that as well. Finally, I stripped the iron armor from the corpse that had formerly owned it, and used some cloth I had cut from one of the tents to wrap it up and sling it over my shoulder. I would need to find a blacksmith to adjust it to fit me before it was useful. I had also found another twenty-three septims and a few precious stones I could sell.
I made my way back to the watchtower, waving at them as I came into view. The second guard from earlier came out to meet me. "I take it from the loot that the camp is dealt with?" he asked.
"Aye," I said. "Mind if I leave this armor here while I deal with the mine?"
"Drop it inside," he responded. "Good luck."
I dropped the armor on a table inside the tower, then headed down the path towards the water, where they had said the standing stones lay. There were three of them, ones I remembered from my youth: The Warrior, The Mage, and The Thief. I stood in the middle for a moment, feeling the vibration of energy from the three stones, something I had never noticed before without making physical contact. My new magical abilities seemed to have some interesting extra effects.
The vibration seemed stronger to me around the Warrior Stone, so I stepped forward and laid my hand on it, closing my eyes as I did. As soon as my palm contacted the carved rock, a surge of energy ran through me. I felt… stronger. I felt like my sword would strike harder, and my arrows would hit with more force. I felt a sense of familiarity with my weapons that had been growing since I started training with these types of weapons decades ago expand, not a lot but noticeably. I never would have noticed the change without my new ability to sense energy, but now that I could it was overwhelming. I loved it.
Finally, I stepped back, disengaging from the stone and feeling the strength of the sensation fade. The effects, however, did not. I stood and breathed for a moment, calming myself from the euphoric rush from the energy that had been provided. Once I was once again contained, I turned and headed up the path towards the mine. As I walked, I quickly spotted a trail to one side. I drew my sword, slid my shield onto my left arm, and started up the path. A moment's watch brought me within sight of the mine, and the sentry leaning against a post outside of it. She saw me, and her eyes widened as she opened her mouth and drew the war axe from her hip.
"IMP-" She was cut off by the impact of my shield striking her chest, driving the wind out of her, but that didn't stop her from swiping at my unprotected head with her axe. My shield was otherwise engaged, so I stepped back away from the attack, and she took the space it created to recover. As much as she could while she was laboring to catch her breath. As soon as the axe went by, I stepped back in with a thrust to her chest that would have driven my new steel sword straight through her hide armor and into her heart. She twisted away from it, swiping her axe at me again. This time I caught the blow on my shield and the axe bounced off, the strength of her swing changing direction and pulling her off balance. I showed no hesitation, stepping in and slashing her across the stomach, spilling her guts out onto the ground. When she collapsed face down on the ground, I stabbed her in the back of the neck, severing her spinal cord and killing her instantly. A mercy, rather than the slow suffering death of a gut wound.
The door to the mine wasn't locked, so I slipped inside, sword and shield ready in case her aborted shout had alerted anyone. It hadn't, and I slid down the hall until I felt my foot catch on a tripwire. "Damnit," I growled, and threw myself forward and to the side, just in time as a rockfall that would have crushed me fell where I had stood. I froze in the crouch I landed in, sword and shield held up just in case. Nothing happened. Shor's bones, these bandits were stupid. I started moving again, rounding the corner of the tunnel and facing a bridge that spanned an underground pond. Torches were spaced around the cavern, leaving it well-lit. A ramp to the right and further down the bridge led to a patch of dry ground, where I could hear and see two fur-dressed bandits talking. The other end of the bridge led into another tunnel, and to my left there was a raised section of bridge and an opening that showed a storage area I assumed connected to the tunnel I had access to.
First things first. The two in the chamber needed to die. So I did the natural thing and strolled out onto the bridge like I owned the place, then called down to them, "Well you lot are the sorriest bunch of bandits I've ever seen. One sentry, a trap that made loads of noise that you completely ignored. By Talos, the last time I met someone this stupid it was an orc!"
They had jerked around in surprise at the sound of my footsteps and voice, but surprise turned to rage as soon as I started insulting them. One of them let out a wordless howl, and then they both charged up the ramp and towards where I stood on the other end of the bridge. They both wore fur armor, though one carried an iron sword and shield while the other carried a steel warhammer. The shieldbearer was faster and reached me first. I parried his first swing with my own blade, then slammed my shield into his to knock him back. He stumbled and I lunged, my blade leaving a deep cut in his side as he dodged to the side to avoid the point going through his heart. I was forced to step back and throw up my shield before I could finish him by the arrival of his partner, whose hammer crashed into my shield with the full weight of his swing behind it. The shield vibrated, but held, and while my arm went slightly numb he obviously hadn't expected me to stop his strike cold and was too surprised to react when my sword's edge flicked out and cut his throat. I planted a kick in his gut, and he fell, grabbing for the wound I had inflicted. I had cut deep, severing both arteries and the windpipe based on the blood spray and the fish-out-of-water gasping he was doing. Then the shieldbearer was back, slashing at me in a frenzy, shield all but forgotten. I kept my shield between us, blocking or deflecting each strike. His strikes were many, but they lacked power and it took little effort to neutralize them. Finally he grew tired and sloppy, and I repeated the thrust I had landed on him earlier. This time the blade went straight through his heart, and he toppled.
A quick search of the bodies turned up a couple of lockpicks (I had twenty now), another dozen septims, and a garnet. I moved across the bridge, into the next tunnel. It split in a T, the left leading down to a skeleton and a money pouch, and the right up to the alcove I had seen before. I scooped up the money pouch, adding it to my stash, then turned up towards the alcove. There was nothing there of value, but there was a lever that I guessed operated the raised bridge. I pulled the lever, the bridge dropped into place, and two more bandits ran out onto it. They hadn't noticed me, so I took advantage of that fact and vaulted over the railing towards them.
As I came down I lashed out with my blade, and my momentum and the force of the swing allowed it to cut a bloody swath across the first bandit's chest. He shouted and stepped back, dropping the steel greatsword in his hand, while the second stepped forward with an axe in each hand. Before he could begin swinging them I stepped in and threw a punch with the rim of my shield, striking him in the nose. I heard the cartilage snap, and he stumbled back. I stepped with him and threw an uppercut with the shield, snapping his head back, causing another snap in his neck. He dropped like a marionette with his strings cut. The first bandit had recovered his greatsword. He held it in one hand, the weight propped up on his shoulder while his other arm was pressed against his bleeding chest. I grinned at him wolfishly, then dropped my sword and shield, reaching behind my shoulder and drawing my own greatsword. I spread my legs about shoulder-width and bent my knees, bringing the massive blade into a horizontal guard, the tip pointed at the bandit, all of which brought me into a stance for the style of greatsword fighting I had created.
I was stronger than most people, even other Nords. That's not a boast, merely a fact. I had decided to take advantage of that fact by creating a new way of using the weighty slab of metal we called a greatsword. Most users used both hands and full-bodied swings to devastating effect. Thanks to my higher-than-average strength thanks to my Nord heritage (lots of muscle) and Altmer genetics (stronger than I look), I could swing a greatsword with more dexterity than most managed. This had led to my development of a far more fluid style of fighting with the large blades. I was averagely skilled with sword, dagger, and bow, but all modesty aside I was a master of the greatsword.
The bandit stepped forward, throwing his body into a heavy overhanded swing of his weapon that probably would have split me in two had it landed. Unfortunately for him, his body had telegraphed the strike from the beginning and I had taken a half step to one side. As I did so, I lashed my sword out to the side with my right hand alone, batting the weapon farther away from me. His single arm didn't have the strength to control the sword's momentum, causing him to stumble away from me, while I took the blade back into both hands and continued my sidestepping motion, the momentum of the movement and my own strength allowed me to deliver a blow that cut him cleanly in half at the waist. I was mildly disappointed at the swift end to the little duel, but the wound I had first dealt was probably enough to kill him eventually, so it was small wonder.
I dropped the iron greatsword I had been carrying, intending to change it out for the steel greatsword my opponent had carried. But once I was free of the weight of the sword, I realized that my eagerness to secure new weapons and equipment had left me overburdened. It seemed like I had a moment, so I sighed and began stripping off weapons and gear. My backpack, bow, quiver, and baldric hit the ground, followed by my swordbelt carrying its sword and pair of daggers. My shield was badly damaged, so I tossed it off the bridge and into the pool below. It was honestly one more piece of gear I didn't really need, and easily replaceable the next time I found a bandit to kill.
My iron dagger sheath I removed from its place at my belt, attaching it to the straps on my left shoulder pauldron, hilt down for ease of access. The steel dagger stayed on my sword belt's right side, opposite my steel sword on the left. I hooked the belt back around my waist, cinching it tight against my armor. I strapped my quiver to the steel greatsword I had recovered's baldric, the slid the assembly over my head. My bow I unstrung and slipped into the quiver, and finally I slide my knapsack on so it sat at an angle next to the baldric, not easily accessible but it didn't need to be. I slipped a pair of health potions and a stamina potion into a pouch, which I tied to the back left side of my swordbelt, for ease of access with my offhand. Thus equipped, I turned towards the newly accessible tunnel and made my way deeper into the mine.
The tunnel led to a bend in the cave, around which I could hear movement. I slide my longsword out of its sheath in deference to the tightness of the walls. I rounded the corner moving fast, and cannoned into a woman with a war axe in each hand. The impact tossed her lightly armored body against a wall, and I stepped in with a fast thrust that took her through the chest. She slumped down and quickly bled out when I withdrew the blade. Next to the chair she had occupied until she heard me coming was a gate, which quickly proved itself to be locked. I could see what looked like a treasure room on the other side, so on a hunch I rifled through the corpses' pouches and pockets until I found a key, which proved to provide admittance to the treasure.
There wasn't much in there, about fifty septims and some assorted semi-precious stones. The main item of value was a spellbook. When I picked this one up, the symbols that had been totally unreadable on the Sparks book now twisted in my mind into something I understood. This book taught a spell called 'Clairvoyance', though what exactly that meant I had no idea. I shoved the book into my sack, resolving to find a wizard to give me more detail before learning it. Maybe the Jarl's wizard in Whiterun would be able to help.
Once the treasure room was looted, I continued down the cavern, ignoring another locked cage with nothing in it as I kept walking. The tunnel opened up into a wide cavern, and I dropped into a crouch and pressed against the wall to stay out of sight. I moved to another pillar, on the lip of a short cliff leading to a lower area. A ramp on the left led to a higher area with some chairs and a rope bridge reaching to the right wall of the cavern. Down below was a forge where a bandit worked, and two more were on the rope bridge and the seating area. I withdrew back to the tunnel mouth and extracted my bow from the quiver, restringing it as quietly as I could. Once strung, I drew an arrow and laid it on the string, creeping back to the edge.
I raised my bow, sighting down the arrow at the man at the forge. I let out a breath and released, sending the arrow spinning across the distance between us, finding a home between his shoulder blades. The impact knocked him forward, his knees hitting the low retaining wall and his upper body falling into the forge. The scent of burning flesh began to fill the cavern, and I saw both remaining enemies snap around to look towards the forge. I drew another pair of arrows, loosing two at the nearer of the two targets, the one at the seating area. The first shot hit him in the upper right arm, but the other missed and sparked off the wall behind him. He started charging down the ramp towards me, and at the same time an arrow hissed past my head. I threw myself behind one of the stone pillars, shielding myself from the figure on the bridge, who I now realized was an archer.
I could hear the footsteps of the other enemy drawing closer, so I dropped my bow and drew my steel sword and dagger. Out in the cavern I would be able to swing my greatsword, but on this ledge it was still tight enough that I preferred the shorter, lighter blade of my longsword. The enemy came down the ramp at the run, ducking under a swipe of my blade and launching his soldier into me, knocking off my feet. He followed me to the ground, landing on top of me. He wore leather armor, but iron gauntlets, with which he started throwing punches at my face, leaving the greataxe he carried strapped to his back. I threw my hands up, my weapons fallen from my hands as I hit the ground, to guard my face from his blows. The clang of his iron gauntlets on my Imperial iron filled the cavern, and I knew I needed to find a way out of this before he found a way through my guard or his friend arrived and shoved a blade in me. He had straddled me, counting on his body weight to hold me down, so I suddenly twisted my weight to one side, disrupting his balance. He paused in his blows to catch his balance, and I snapped my right hand up to the iron dagger strapped to my pauldron, slipping it from its sheath and thrusting at his face. He brought his arm around, trying to block in a panic, and deflected the blade down from his face… and directly into his throat.
Blood splattered my face, and he choked on the iron and blood now occupying his windpipe. I reared up, knocking his weakening body off of me, and moved to recover my steel. My dagger was close by, but my sword had fallen off the ledge down to the forge area. I was still concealed from the main cavern by a pillar, and I poked my head around it to check the archer's position. An arrow creased my hair as soon as I did, and I jerked back. The sword would have to wait. Instead I rushed to the next pillar closest to the ramp up to the bridge, narrowly avoiding another arrow along the way. Whoever that archer was, they were significantly better than I was. I wouldn't have come anywhere close to landing those shots, whereas they had barely missed both times. The stone pillar I stood by was right next to the ramp, and I braced myself to run.
I darted out from cover, hard charging up the ramp, ensuring that I juked or hesitated randomly every few seconds. I dodged three more arrows on my way up the ramp, and another skated off my breastplate. As soon as I reached the seating area, I charged for the bridge, my hand not clutching my dagger outstretched as I sent the Sparks spell's lightning arcing out in front of me. The archer, an Argonian female, stiffened as the lightning struck her, every muscle in her body spasming as the energy coursed through her. I stopped the lightning as I reached her, seconds before my magicka reserves ran out, and I stabbed the dagger into one of her large, reptilian eyes. The archer crumpled, and I sat back for a moment, catching my breath. The fight with the two bandits, in its entirety probably took less than five minutes, but it felt like it had been hours.
I allowed myself time to recover, then set about stripping corpses and looting their stash. Nothing was recoverable from the smith's body, as by the time I got back to it it had fully caught fire. The first bandit yielded nothing other than a few septims, and the archer a few more, as well as some iron arrows to replace the three I had lost, one in the burned smith and two broken shooting at the first bandit. A small, secondary treasure room off of the seating area yielded a few more gemstones, as well as a decent amount of septims. My iron dagger I recovered from the corpse of the bandit I had wrestled, and my sword from the smithy area. The fall had resulted in a couple of notches in the blade, but luckily a grindstone and some supplies by the forge allowed me to smooth them out and resharpen it to a razor's edge. Both weapons were returned to their sheaths, then I recrossed the bridge and made my way out of the rear entrance of the mine.
A/N: Hey guys, it's been forever since I updated this, sorry about that. Been busy and working on multiple writing projects, most of which haven't been posted yet and may never be at the rate they're going. Hope you enjoy, and hopefully the next chapter will be up sooner rather than later.