Dragonborn Gothic 1 - World-Eater
Part 3
Riverwood. Skyrim.
To me it had made the most sense to return to Riverwood and then head out to Bleak Falls Barrow the next day, rather than to head straight there. Not only did this allow to me get some rest after a long walk, I was also able to resupply, and most importantly I was able to recruit some help.
While I may have had some luck if I'd gone to the Companions, it was doubtful that I could have afforded their services, and I had no desire to join them as a member right now as there were important matters that I needed to attend to. Such as preventing the End of Days. There was little point joining the Fighter's Guild if everyone died, there would be no one to hire me.
My choice of whom to seek aid from become obvious once I thought about it. There was one person in Riverwood who was willing to take action in order to do something about the dragon attacks, and had the skills to aid me in the coming quest.
She was Delphine, a former Blade, they had been a group of people who'd protected the Emperor. Anyone who'd played Elder Scrolls Oblivion knew what they were about. The group didn't really exist anymore, but there were a couple of them left here in Skyrim, hiding from the Thalmor.
"I'd rather that didn't become common knowledge," Delphine said to me, once I had explained that I knew she was a Blade "I have… enemies".
By that she was referring to the Thalmor, those Nazis elves I'd seen at Helgan.
"Don't worry, I'll keep my mouth shut," I assured the woman who was not the harmless innkeeper that she appeared to be "I wouldn't want to get on your bad side".
The Blades were well trained warriors who used katanas, and I'd seen enough movies to know how deadly those things could be. Plus I was now in her secret basement room, which was more secure than in the game, so if she killed me down here then no one would even notice.
"I'm after something called the Dragonstone" I told the warrior woman "The Jarl's wizard asked me to find it".
Lucky for me the task of recruiting Delphine hadn't been too much trouble so far. I'd told her that I believed that I might the Dragonborn, and that I might have a way to prove it, one that didn't involve trying to slay a dragon. After some discussion I'd even admitted that I knew stuff that other people did not know, and that I was letting this knowledge guide me.
Since I couldn't explain video games to Delphine I'd told her that I didn't understand where this knowledge came from. Hopefully she would put it down to the work of the gods, who in this reality were an active force in people's lives, even if their work was mostly invisible.
"I was going to give it to Farengar Secret-Fire myself," Delphine told me. "We're pooling our research. If you help me recover the stone I'll trust you enough to take it to him, and get the reward".
Well first of all we had to recover the tablet.
"Met on the other side of the bridge in an hour" Delphine instructed "I have a few things I need to do before we get going".
I was sure that she suspected that this could all be some sort of Thalmor trick. If I were her I'd quickly check out the path to the barrow before coming to the bridge. But since this wasn't a trap for the Blade I didn't worry about that. There were many other things for me to worry about.
Like how I'd somehow become involved in the love triangle between Camilla, the sister of the guy who ran the local store, and her two suitors, both of which were jerks. I'd already taken letters from both of them and given them to Camillia so that she could deal with the matter herself. Hopefully that possibly good deed wouldn't end up biting me in the ass.
Also the dragons, I really shouldn't forget about the dragons.
(Line Break)
Bleak Falls Barrow. Skyrim.
After dealing with a few bandits who'd been hanging around in the entrance hall, we descended into the Barrow via a winding tunnel. It was surprisingly well lit, with burning braziers and candles that provided more than adequate illumination and so there was no need to light a torch, or to employ any sort of magical night vision, which was a thing in this world. Which at some point in the near future I should look into as tomb raiding a regular passtime for adventures.
You'd think by now that all the tombs had been fully raided and that there would be no treasure left to loot, and while the upper level of this barrow had been picked clean by the bandits I knew that most places like this would be full of stuff for me to take.
This made some sense in a video game as it gave the PC (the playable character) something to do, but it didn't make sense when you were actually in Skyrim. Not unless nearly everyone other than I was held back from tomb raiding by superstitious fear, and given that these Barrows did contain the walking dead that might actually be the reason.
I really wasn't as well prepared for this trip as I would have liked to have been. Magical items were pretty expensive. Plus unlike in the game you actually had to eat, drink and sleep, and those things weren't free, combined with my need to keep myself well armed and armoured, and I was spending quite a bit of money on just keeping myself alive.
This had resulted in me selling both my boots and leather jacket, and while I'd gotten a good deal for them, that money wouldn't last me for long. Hopefully there would be some valuable loot that I could recover during this quest, and maybe even some magical items.
"The bandits must have explored deep into the barrow," Delphine remarked. "I doubt if they will have taken the Dragonstone, they would have been after more obvious stuff like gold and jewels, but it is a possibility".
As I'd expected Delphine had cleared the way to the Barrow before meeting me as she had mad ninja skills, and we'd both dealt with the crooks on the top level of the Barrow. Which had given me a chance to see the Blade in action. She was indeed ninja.
"The golden claw I was told about should be on person of a Dark Elf" I informed Delphine "I think we'll need it".
Rather than question me more on how I could no such a thing the Blade and I kept moving. There was little point discussing it as if I was wrong she'd find that out soon enough, and if I was right about what I knew she'd also discover that and know to trust me, at least to come extent.
Before long we reached a large chamber that had an exit which was barred by a lowered portcullis. A lever, which I knew to be the opening mechanism for the portcullis, stood in front of it. A dead bandit was sprawled beside the lever. It wasn't hard to figure out what had happened.
"Poison darts," Delphine explained, after a cursory examination of the body. "The lever triggers the trap. It's not safe to open unless you know the combination".
She pointed to where three small pillars, each bearing symbols depicting various animals, stood at the side of the chamber.
"These need to be rotated into the correct combination" Delphine needlessly told me.
She began to rearrange the stones.
"Those stones up there" she explained to me, "tell us which symbols are the right ones".
I'd often wondered why the solution to these puzzles were so simply.
"Why have the answer to the puzzle in plain sight?" I asked "It seems a little pointless".
The Blade shrugged.
"It killed this idiot," Delphine said. "Perhaps the idea was to kill only the foolish while allowing those who show some intelligence to pass".
That did make some sense, and there were monsters out there which could work a lever, but would not understand the puzzle, some humans as well.
"The ancient Nords are long dead" Delphine then added "And we can only guess at their motivations just as they would struggle to understand some of things we do".
Before long the portcullis slid upward, which meant the way onward was now clear.
"You're a bit of a puzzle yourself," Delphine remarked, as we went through the doorway and into the room beyond "How much adventuring have you done?".
While the woman talked I noted there was a lever on the wall, presumably to operate the portcullis from that side, and an alcove in which there was a chest. This part of the Barrow had been looted as well, either recently by the Dark Elf, or some time ago by someone who was smart enough to figure out the puzzle.
"Not much" I admitted "If I was a veteran at this sort of thing I wouldn't have asked for your help".
The Blade studied me for a moment.
"I'd better let me take the lead, then," Delphine decided "Are you any good with that bow?".
Indeed I was still carrying a quiver, which I had restocked with arrows, as well as a new string for my bow.
"Only against targets," I confessed "And a giant".
I'd only been able to hit the giant because it had been so large.
"Just do your best, and try not to hit me," said Delphine.
After saying that she led the way down a wooden spiral staircase. Halfway down the stairs we were attacked by three creatures resembling rats, only they were too big to be normal rats. Giant rats were a pretty common sight in adventure games. Since I'd known they were coming I was prepared and therefore able to kill one of the rats with little trouble
At the bottom of the stairs we emerged into a chamber with a another corridor descending further into the barrow on the far side. Delphine stopped to examine something that lay on a stone table in the center of this underground room.
"A scroll of Fireball," she told me "I'm surprised this has just been left here. It looks new. Perhaps the elf that took the claw left it here".
She paused in the act of stashing the scroll away in a pouch, as well as the bottle of something that I knew better than to touch.
"I can hear a voice" she then said "up ahead."
Before long I heard a male voice that seemed to be calling for help. Delphine didn't rush to the rescue but moved on slowly and cautiously. Which seemed wise so I copied her actions.
"Is that you Harknir? Bjorn? Soling?" called out the voice. "I know I ran ahead with the claw and I'm sorry. I need help!".
The entrance to another room, which contained the source of that voice, was blocked by a dense mass of web.
"Be ready for a fight" the Blade warned me.
She then sliced through the webs and stepped through the gap. I followed and we found ourselves in a large chamber that was covered in cobwebs from floor to ceiling. I could see the Dark Elf, who was struggling to get free, as well as the wrapped up bodies of giant rats, and even a few people. Guess I now knew why only the upper levels of this barrow had been looted.
When the massive spider appeared Delphine drew her katana and charged. Before I could draw my sword Delphine was already in combat, slashing at the horrible creature, and managing to keep its huge fangs.
What exactly motivated me to drop my sword and use my bow was something I didn't know, but there was no time to think on it anyway so I nocked an arrow, took aim at the spider's massive rear end, which was now close to me as Delphine was moving around a lit while fighting, and before long I loosed the projectile.
I got another arrow ready, but it wasn't necessary. Delphine's blade cut through one of the spider's limbs and then, as the spider lurched and staggered, the warrior drove her sword between the monster's fangs and deep into the arachnid's head. It uttered a high-pitched hissing shriek, its legs gave way, and it flopped to the ground very, very dead.
Once the deed was fone Delphine pulled free her katana, wiped it clean on the corpse she had just made, and slid it back into its sheath. She then noticed my arrow.
"Didn't do the thing much harm, but it was still a nice shot" she commented.
Yes I was rather pleased with it.
"That Warrior Stone thing that I touched. Ever since I touched it the fighting has become a lot easier" I mentioned.
Although marksmanship might be a thief skill, so I might just be making use of a natural talent I'd never taken the time to nurture. Not that it mattered right now.
"Ah," Delphine said. "Yes, that would explain it. The power of the Guardian Stones, the Divines must have blessed you".
Further conversation came to an end as the voice that had called for help was shouting again, frantically yelling in fact
"Cut me down!" he demanded.
As I'd seen just a short time ago there was a man was trapped in the webs on the far wall, entirely wrapped up, unable to move.
"You did it! You killed it!" the Dunmer shouted as I came over to him "Now, cut me down before anything else shows up".
After putting away my bow, I picked up my sword, went over the sort of Drow, and jabbed him with it. Delphine was busying herself with the spider, collecting some of its venom I guessed. I didn't really want to know.
"First you're going hand over that claw you stole from Lucan" I demanded.
Since I knew the guy was as crooked as could be, he would get nothing from me until I had the claw, and if he was lucky I might let him live.
"Do I look as if I can reach my pouch?" the Dunmer pointed out. "Cut me down first"
While I began to do my best to cut away the webbing Delphine's katana came out and slashed through the tough material with ease. My steel longsword wasn't designed to cut like a katana could, and I wasn't anywhere near as skilled with weapons as the Blade was.
The Dunmer dropped to the ground, revealing that behind him was a passageway. He immediately whirled and ran for it. However since I'd known all along that he was going to do that I caught up to him within a few strides. I grabbed him by the collar of his armor and jerked him backward. He tried to resist but he wasn't strong enough, and I had a sword to poke him the back with.
Without much trouble I dragged him back into the chamber and Delphine rested the point of her katana on the Dark Elf's neck, the tip was very sharp I was sure that it wouldn't take much to cut the skin.
"If you want to live tell me: Why did you steal the claw?" the warrior woman demanded to know.
Smartly she was seeking to confirm what little I had told her about this this place. And while the Dunmer, to use the local term, was a criminal I didn't he'd dare to be anything less than honest right now.
"It's the key to a fortune," he explained. "The treasure of the ancient Nords lies within, in the Hall of Stories, with a puzzle to keep out the unworthy. But the legend says that if you have the Golden Claw the solution is in the palm of your hands".
Well not quite, it was on the back of the claw. Which again seemed too simple, but then why would anyone build a combination lock for a tomb? I only conclude that the someone had set this all up so that whomever wanted to get to the World Walls would have to prove that they had basic intelligence as well as physical might.
"Hand it over," Delphine commanded.
The Dunmer opened up his pouch, which like mine was bigger on the inside, and extracted a gilded object that was about the size of a large human hand but with three long claws, rather than fingers.
"Hmm," said Delphine, while taking the claw and examining it. "Three Nordic symbols. Bear, moth, owl. They must be the answer to a puzzle lock that doesn't have the clues in plain sight".
She placed the golden claw in her own pouch, clearly not yet ready to trust me with it, not that I blamed her.
"Your friends are all dead. Get out of here and thank the Divines that we're not killing you too" she then said to the dark elf.
With that the Dunmer ran off in the direction of the staircase.
"You know he might try following us" I said to Delphine.
She didn't seem concerned.
"I'll know if he does" she told me.
Soon we were off again, heading further into Barrow, and deeper underground. Before long we finally came across something we could loot. A soul gem. Delphine examined the gem, before handing it to me.
"A Common Soul gem," she said. "Empty, unfortunately, but still worth something. You might as well have it. If nothing else you can trade it for a hot meal and a bed for the night".
Both of those things sounded so tempting right now.
"Come on, this way" Delphine urged.
The way ahead was still well lit, and also it contained mummified bodies. Grey-skinned, withered, with teeth showing behind shrunken lips. I knew that these things worked to maintain the Barrow, which was why the torches were lit and the traps still worked, well mostly. I'm sure the giant spider setting up in one of the chambers had made their work more difficult and that bandits had lit up the torches up above.
There seemed to be two types of the undead around here. Ones with armour and weapons, and ones without. My guess was that some were meant to defend and others were the workers. However some of the bodies were wrapped up in old cloth so I guess not everyone here spent their afterlife as zombies.
My trail of thought about the maintenance and defence of dungeons in magical fantasy lands, came to a sudden end when one of the mummies moved. It climbed out of the niche, stood up, and raised a sword and shield.
"Draugr!" Delphine yelled
She moved to engage it but then two more of the dead climbed from their alcoves and attacked us, so I knew that I had to take action. The next few seconds were a frantic whirl of action. I drew my sword and took my new shield out of my pouch, so that I could slash, parry, block and slash again. I was vaguely aware of Delphine doing the same but my attention was concentrated on the hideous things that were attacking me
(Line Break)
Bleak Falls Barrow. Skyrim
After making our way past some more deadly traps, fighting even more draugr, including one who fired some kind of freezing magic at us from, and skeletons who were armed with bows, we got to a place that was nice to actually safe be in.
Which was a chamber in which a waterfall tumbled down one wall and into a fast flowing shallow stream, and this in turn led into what seemed to be a natural cave. This place was illuminated by glowing fungi that grew in clumps on the walls.
I watched as Delphine cut away a few of the fungi, and stored them in her pack.
"Gothic if you're going to make a career out of adventuring you should get use to doing stuff like this" the Blade advised "Rare fungus like this is worth a lot to apothecaries and alchemists. But never take them all. Always leave a few behind, so that they can regrow, and so that you still have light to see".
After following this advice we moved onward into a cavern where another waterfall cascaded down through a shaft that must have reached to the surface, judging by beams of moonlight. Which made me wonder if it was possible avoid a lot of trouble just by finding holes in the ground and dropping into the subterranean lairs. Although I could see problems with this idea, and aside from having to find the right hole in the ground, you'd need be lowered down on a rope, and pulled up again because climbing a rope was hard enough without having to carry the treasure you were looking for.
We were now coming to end of this dungeon diving session I realised as we entered a corridor, which roofed with a low arching ceiling, and had carvings on its walls. They appeared to depict processions of robed priests, but time had worn away most of the rest and I couldn't figure out the point of the pictures.
The passage ended at a door. A strange, stone, door in the center of which was set a metal disc bearing a picture of a claw and three holes. The spacing of the holes matched the prongs of the Golden Claw. And above that disc there were three semi-circles in the stone all set with another disc, each bearing a symbol; a moth, an owl, and a bear.
"It's a combination lock," I said "You turn the rings so that they match the ones on the Golden Claw."
Delphine turned the rings until they showed bear, moth, and owl. Then she inserted the prongs of the claw into the holes and turned the handle to rotate the central disc.
There was a grinding noise and the door began to slide downward. Delphine removed the claw and handed it to me.
"You can take it back to Lucan," she said.
Clearly I'd proven myself to her, at least to a degree.
I packed the claw away, as the door slid down to a fully open position, and then followed Delphine into the cavern that lay beyond. Within the cave there was yet another waterfall which plunged down from an opening from the roof above, and moonlight shone through the caps in the ceiling. All in all rather pretty.
A stream ran from the bottom of the waterfall and disappeared into the rocky wall at the opposite side of the cavern. There was also a stone footbridge that crossed the stream and led to a large, flat, area where the stone floor had been shaped long ago by sentient beings.
Resting on the smoothed out area was a sarcophagus, hopefully not containing a Goa'uld System Lord, although thinking on a Goa'uld might be easier to handle that what I knew to be in that thing. Those parasites only pretended to have supernatural powers some of the undead things around here had real magic.
Beyond that was a smooth wall with an alcove set into it. I took a few steps in that direction and was able to make out that only one small part of the alcove glowed. And I could hear something coming from in that direction. It was chanting, and I felt drawn to it.
"If that's what I think it is" I heard Delphine say "You should go right up to it. Then we'll know if you are really Dragonborn".
When I got close to the wall the chanting grew louder and louder until it was almost painful to hear, and a faintly glowing word greatly brightened without seeming to illuminate anything but itself. Then a wavering stream of blue energy shoot forth from it and right into my eyes, blinding me.
A voice boomed in my head 'FUS!' and now I understood that 'fus' meant 'force', and that didn't mean I simply understood the meaning of the word, it meant that I understood what the word really meant. The knowledge had entered my mind much like the information from that spellbook I'd read had. It was like the knowledge was a living thing in my mind.
Then the glow went out, the light in the cavern returned to its previous state, and the chanting rose to one final climactic shout and then stopped. I was left with a blank wall, all the writing had gone. This Word Wall had been written for me, or someone like me, and now its purpose was done.
Which didn't make any sense to me. Why would someone put this here for a Dragonborn to learn from and make it so hard to get to? Things didn't add up, I was missing something.
"Did something happen?" Delphine asked me.
I nodded.
"There's no doubt about it" I said "I'm the Dragonborn".
Before Delphine could comment on this there was a loud cracking noise, the sarcophagus burst open and a figure rose up, tossing aside the sarcophagus lid, and climbed out. Thanks to the Word Wall I'd forgotten for a few moments about the boss battle.
It was another Draugr, but this was taller than the others, it was carrying a shield and wielding a sword that much like those carried by the other undead that guarded this place, only it glowled a faint blue. From this I got the impression that it was an enchanted weapon.
The creature's cold blue eyes studied us both for a moment before it turned to Delphine and attacked. I moved to aid her, and the Draugr turned its head toward me and shouted 'Fus!' A wave of shimmering force burst from its mouth, slammed into my body, and sent me flying back so that I hit the now dormant World Wall.
"Note to self, invest in a helmet" I muttered to myself while rubbing my head.
After very quickly picking myself up, and recovering my weapon, I charged and attempted to stab the undead thing. The Draugr Shouted again, this time at Delphine, and she was thrown backward a dozen feet and fell into the nearby stream.
Then it turned with surprising speed and met my blows, it blocked both the first and the second blow, before it aimed a slash at me with the faintly glowing weapon. I brought up my shield and blocked its powerful blows, while knowing that my arm was going to be sore later.
The creature Shouted again, and so did I, the power came out of me as I exhaled. 'FUS!'. The two shouts didn't cancel each other out. Both I and the undead creature were knocked to the ground. I lost my weapon and ended up losing my grip on the shield I'd gotten in Whiterun. As did the monster, it too was left without a sword or shield.
Slowly the undead thing raised its arms, and I suspected that it was going to blast cold at me, so I struck first with my own magic. Before now all I'd ever managed was a few sparks, but this time things were different, the sparks flew from my fingertips in a rush of power that felt so good.
"Power. Unlimited Power!" I heard myself yelling.
While the display of power was visually impressive it didn't do much to my foe, and I figured that its attack would do a lot more damage. However rather than blast me with cold it reached down to pick up its black sword and then slowly advanced towards me.
It seemed that I had done some damage to the monster as it moving slowly and didn't use magic on me, but I didn't have anything left to throw at it. Well there was a dagger in my boots, but since I didn't know how to throw knives and I couldn't bring myself to stand up, that wasn't much help.
Then without warning a katana blade burst out through the draugr's chest and sliced down through undead flesh. The eerie light in its eyes went out, it crumpled to the ground, and the faintly glowing black sword skittered away across the stone. Behind the fallen Draugr was Delphine, dripping wet, but unharmed.
"Are you hurt?" she asked, real concern in her voice.
No, mostly I was just tired. I must have put too much of myself into that spell, draining all my mana, or something like that.
"I'll live" I replied "Are you okay?".
She look a little worse for wear.
"Soaking wet, and a little bruised, but that's all," Delphine responded. "That was no common Draugr. It used the Thu'um, and I saw you do it too".
I didn't deny it.
"The Nord legends tell of heroes who could Shout with the voice of dragons and produce powerful magic" said the warrior woman "A few people have preserved the art. Ulfric Stormcloak can use the Voice, a little, although he's by no means a master. You learned a Shout from that wall, I don't know if that means you are the Dragonborn, but between that and these visions of yours, I'm starting to believe".
As the woman helped me up she asked me another question.
"Why were you yelling about power went casting lightening?" she wondered.
I struggled to answer that, trying to phase it in ways she would understand.
"Something I saw in a play" I told her "I don't know why I said it, heat of the moment I guess".
Delphine shrugged, and after that she got down to business.
"The Dragonstone should be around here somewhere" the Blade said, mostly to herself "Probably in the sarcophagus or in the chest"
It wasn't. The sarcophagus was empty. I'd forgotten exactly where the tablet was so we had to look for it. The chest, which wasn't locked, held a metal helmet made from the same black metal as the weapons of the zombies, a pile of coins, and that was it.
An extensive search of the cave turned up two other chests containing a few saleable items not of great value, but still worth taking. None of them fit the description of the Dragonstone.
Eventually Delphine turned her attention to the dead draugr itself and found that it had a pouch strapped to its side. Inside the pouch was only one thing; a slab of stone. One side of it was engraved with writing in the same script as that on the wall. The other side seemed to be a crude map.
"This is what Farengar and I are after," said Delphine. "I'll take a rubbing of it before you take it to Whiterun. I can work from that. This map marks Dragon burial sites, at least I hope".
She quickly made a copy.
"Oh and don't tell Farengar I was here" the Blade requested "He doesn't know who I really am and I want to keep it that way"
I nodded to confirm that I would do as she wished. Then Delphine started to divide what little loot there was, sharing out the old coins, while leaving some of the junk behind. I assumed that the old money still had value, gold was gold after all. Then she examined the sword of the boss that had nearly killed the both of us.
"A frost enchantment" she said "You should take it. Even if it's not much use against the dead it will help against other creatures and I prefer my katana".
Plus it was a cool looking magic sword.
"Thanks" I said.
"I think we're finished here," Delphine said. "The stairs over there imply that there's an exit that way. Let's find out".
Following her we quickly made our way out of Bleak Falls Barrow and headed back to Riverwood. Hopefully I would never have to return to this awful place.
While leaving I remembered that some of these barrows had secret exists that were near the entrances. Perhaps with some help and a few crowbars I could bypass a lot of dungeon diving. I might have to invent the crowbar, and thinking on that amused me. My contribution to civilization in this world would be the crowbar, a tool often used for vandalism.