Chapter 25: Valtheim Towers

[8th – 12th of Hearthfire 4E 201]

During the last few days I had spent two mornings at the Whiterun school and I had helped a group of workers to transport large and heavy boulders up the stairs in the city to reinforce the city walls. Apparently Jarl Balgruuf the Greater got more and more concerned about the Civil War, and he was not sure for how long Whiterun might succeed to stay neutral. Naturally, I could not know what might trigger him to eventually pick a side; this certainly was not scripted. I did hope, though, that this real Skyrim offered more options than the game, like Whiterun joining the Stormcloaks; I'd have to find out about that, and I'd certainly need to learn more about the parties in the civil war and specifically about Jarl Ulfric and his motivations and attitude.

A few days ago I had realized that the calendar showed 'Sundas', which was Sunday, and I had spent the day mostly alone with some prayer and meditation, compensating for the lack of local church services.

Once a couple of more days had been spent with training, talking and doing a few minor tasks, Farkas approached me when I had just come back from my jogging round, just when I was finishing my breakfast and starting to looking for somebody to train with me on that fine day:

"Whelp, you have shown some progress in your fighting skills, and I'd like to ask you to join us today for a task."

"Where are we going, Farkas?"

"The Jarl put a large bounty on the bandits in Valtheim Towers, and we also heard rumors about them keeping a respected Whiterun citizen as hostage."

"Do we know who that is?"

"Yes, whelp, we do. Nazeem, the Redguard, was at his farm, Chillfurrow Farm, day before yesterday, and one of his farm hands reported that he was kidnapped by bandits when he was just about to leave. They must have been real bold to get that close to the city. Other witnesses report that he has been brought to Valtheim Towers, and the Jarl is not willing to have ransom paid to criminals."

"But, when we attack, don't we risk that the bandits kill him before we can intervene?"

"Aye, whelp, that's a risk, but let's see what we can about it."

Farkas, Aela and I got ready, and I was happy to see that Ria, the young Imperial, was also going to join us. I had grown to like the young woman, and we had some kind of friendship, probably caused by both of us being whelps.

When we had reached the road crossing southeast of Whiterun, I noticed that Farkas and Aela were about to head east; I had an idea and asked:

"Aela, Farkas, Ria, did you all plan to take the road right up to the Towers?"

"Yes, sure, what else can we do?"

"If you do that, the bandits will see us coming from the distance already, won't they?"

"Yes, most likely."

"What about us splitting up, and two of us take the route to the Northern Tower?"

"How and why would you do that?"

"Well, if we first turn north and than east, pass Fellglow Keep and head further east, we should be able to turn around south at some time and get to the Northern Tower. If we attack there, the bandits should assume that this is the main attack and leave the Southern Tower exposed, so that the rest of the team can approach from there undetected."

Aela and Farkas looked at each other, and Aela admitted:

"Icebrain, the whelp's idea is not bad at all, I think. Maybe we should actually do that, don't you think so?"

"Aela, you know, I am not much of a strategist." Farkas replied. "I usually just go ahead and fight."

The huntress turned to me now and asked:

"So, how would you handle that, whelp?"

"Farkas and I could go north and attack the Norther Tower. As soon as the bandits turn to us, Ria and you can hit those on the stone walkway and then take the southern tower. With a little luck the bandits are so confused that they do not think about the hostage. Besides, even if they see the two of you approaching in the road, they may not consider that dangerous, with just two people rather than four."

"Farkas, we are doing what the whelp suggests this time – this is going to be an opportunity, and I am quite curious to see how that works out. And yes, I am going to take the southern approach with Ria."

"How did you come up with that idea?" Ria asked before we separated.

"I do not know, just thinking." I replied. Of course, I had thought about alternate approaches to attacking bandit fortifications when playing before, but the game had not really allowed for sophisticated planing like this one. You could have a number of followers with you, sure, but even with some follower frameworks it was either difficult or impossible to have them execute some sophisticated plan of attack with split forces. Here, in the real Skyrim, NPCs were replaced by real people with real brains, and living in some medieval environment did not imply at all that people were stupid or retarded. Thus, I was curious myself how that might work out, although Aela had apparently liked and approved the concept.

Farkas and I had the longer way, so that we walked fast, whereas Aela and Ria would go slower. We turned north and later east, finding the small trail between mountain and river. We managed to bypass 'Fellglow Keep' without getting involved with whoever resided in there at the moment, although I could see a suspicious glow from afar, maybe indicating a flame atronach lurking over there. For the moment, we kept right north of the cliff above the towers. Hiking with Farkas was great; he did not talk much, but mostly kept quiet. Sometimes he pointed out something specific, like a landmark, a cave or a predator which could be seen in the distance, and I had plenty of time to enjoy the nature and dream along while we walked for hours with only short breaks. In addition, I could practice magic while we walked, and twice or three times an hour I cast 'Oakflesh' on myself, hoping that my tiny pool of magicka might increase over time.

Eventually we could turn south again, and minutes later the Northern Tower was ahead of us. One of the bandits was right outside where I expected him to be, and I whispered to Farkas that I'd take him. Farkas, as he had admitted earlier, was real bad in sneaking with his body mass and his wolf steel armor, and none of us used a bow. Farkas nodded and approved; he was more, like he had mentioned before, the 'just run ahead and fight' type, but he was also supposed to rate the way I handled those situations, and he was apparently inclined to observe first, of course ready to intervene if needed.

I managed to sneak up to the bandit who had an eye on the river, and the noise from the stream helped to cover any sounds I may have caused; when I stood right behind him, I tipped his shoulder with a paw. He turned around, and I enjoyed seeing his face turning from curiosity to surprise to fear. His mouth opened, and I pushed a rag inside which I had prepared before. I used my fist to hit his temple, like I had done with the annoying bard in the 'Bannered Mare', and when the man was down, I bound his limbs with leather strips. Farkas came to my side and nodded approvingly.

"Good work, whelp" he told me. "There is no need to kill people unless we really have to, even if they are bandits."

Looking out across the river, we saw Aela and Ria in position, hiding behind a rock so that they could not be seen from the southern tower. We signaled to them that we were going in now, and that we did. I positioned myself next to the exit leading to the stone bridge, and Farkas went up to clear the tower. Naturally, there were a couple of enemies further up, but Farkas wasn't a Circle member for nothing, and I was not really concerned about him.

From my viewpoint I could see an archer standing up on the top of the southern tower. While he took aim in our direction, he was hit by an arrow most likely from Aela and dropped down. Another bandit stepped out on the bridge and started to run in my direction, but got stopped by an arrow, too, and dropped into the river. That was something special; Aela had been able to hit the bad guy even when he had been running; apparently she really was a master in using the bow.

Another bandit came running in my direction, but no arrow came this time; most likely, Aela and Ria were now inside the tower. I stepped right into the guy's path when he was very close, stretched out my arms and growled "Boo!". That alone was sufficient to make him stumble, and all I had to do was push him off the bridge. So, as much as I had seen so far, we had four of the bandits down, but we did not know how many of them were still inside. I was not worried about Farkas, but I was getting concerned when I saw Aela and Ria retreating from the southern tower, with four evil and strong looking bandits on their heels. We might have underestimated the strength of the enemy force, but Aela was smart enough to compensate, I hoped. She actually was, and she managed to turn back for a moment and release one of her arrows, wounding and thus slowing down one of those who were after Ria and her.

Right at this time I heard a roaring noise in the sky, and a dragon appeared from behind us, coming from the North. I was right inside the tower again, and the bandits pursuing the two Companions were the most obvious target. The dragon swooped down and blasted frost spikes on the two groups, and while Aela and Ria were nimble enough to evade those, the bandits reacted too late; two of them were partially enclosed in ice and out of the game for now, while the wounded one was too far back. The fourth one, though, the bandit chief as I suspected, had raised a big shield and withstood the attack. He ran back into the tower, and a minute later I could see him on the top platform, with a very large bow now. The feud between bandits and Companions seemed to be forgotten for the moment, and while the bandit used his bow from the tower, Aela did so from the ground. Lacking a bow, there was nothing I could do other than watch; my pitiful flame spell did not have the range. Farkas approached behind me and told me that this tower was clear, and as soon as the dragon was down on the ground on the other side for the first time, the big Nord roared and started running across the stone bridge. I followed him, and we were just in time to assist attacking the dragon on the ground, close to the river shore. Aela and the bandit were still shooting arrows, and Ria, Farkas and I used what we had. Specifically Farkas dealt a lot of damage with his greatsword, and I managed to get a few hits in as well, although I was more cautious than I had been when fighting Mirmulnir. We received a few injuries, but nothing serious, and eventually our combined attacks overcame the beast's strength and it succumbed.

While we stopped for a moment to catch our breath, an arrow hit my left thigh, partially penetrating the leather armor, and I yelped and fell down to the ground. Looking around I saw that the bandit on the top of the tower had changed targets quite quickly and aimed at us again. Farkas growled and started running into the tower, and Aela aimed very quickly and almost hit the bandit. She kept the strong guy occupied, but suddenly something happened to distract us. The dead dragon started to go up in flames and disintegrate, like the one at the Western Watchtower had done; I had seen this before and thus I was not very surprised. However, I got curious when a colorful swirl started to show above and around the dead dragon, and I was even more confused to see that swirl slowly moving right into the tower. After the fight against Mirmulnir, we had observed the dragon soul being absorbed by the Dragonborn, so why was the swirl going into the tower here? The Dragonborn could not be here, or could she?

I needed to take some time healing my wound, and I could only watch when I saw Farkas appearing next to the strong bandit on the top platform of the tower. The bandit boss had already been hit by two of Aela՚s arrows, and when Farkas was suddenly right next to him, he dropped his weapon and raised his hands, apparently surrendering.

By now, I had managed to heal myself with a potion and my healing spell, and while Aela stood watch outside, Ria and I stepped into the tower. Farkas came down from the top, greatsword drawn and pointing towards the bandit ahead of him. We got the prisoner outside, and when we removed the helmet and the armor we found out that it was actually a woman. She was bound, same as the only other one who had survived the dragon attack, and Ria and Aela stayed with them as guards. Farkas mentioned now:

"On the way down I saw a door on one of the tower floors, and this might be where we might find the captive."

"All right, let's look there?"

The burly Nord nodded, and we got in. Indeed, on the second floor of the southern tower there was a sturdy wooden door separating a room from the area with the stairs. The door was locked, and both Farkas and I were not gifted in picking locks at all. Thus I pulled my big axe and, with a few mighty swings, separated the lock area from the rest of the wooden door, so that it swung open. Inside, we found not only one, but three captives, all of them tightly bound and gagged and clothed in rags. One of them was a male Redguard I did not know, most likely the person we had been looking for, Nazeem, and the other two were younger and female, a petite Bosmer and an athletic Nord – Fiona and Lydia. Well, that explained at least where the dragon soul had gone to.

Naturally, we first removed the gags and then the leather straps, and all three of them took a minute or two to breathe deeply. Nazeem barely found a few words of thanks and gratitude, Fiona seemed to be unable or at least unwilling to speak right now, but Lydia at least turned towards Farkas and me:

"We owe you for rescuing us, and you have our thanks and gratitude. My Thane and I were captured not far from here, and as my sword arm was not healed well from a previous fight, I failed in my duty to protect her. I don't even want to imagine what those bandits might have done with us if you had not shown up."

Indeed, Lydia's right arm seemed to be injured, maybe even broken, and she had lots of bruises and scratches on various parts of her body. We should probably get her to the Temple of Kynareth in Whiterun for proper care; I did not think that I was able to set a broken arm properly, and I would rather have a trained healer handle that.

Seeing Fiona and Lydia, I wondered of course where Freya might be, but I could ask that question at a later time. Fiona's and Lydia's belongings and armor were quickly found in a chest outside, and we helped them to get down. We had collected a lot of various loot, and we had made three prisoners – the big bandit boss warrior woman, one of her male companions, and the one I had defeated earlier close to the north tower.

Darkness was close now, and Farkas started to lead us back to the city. That movement caused some objections, though, and Lydia, the faithful housecarl, protested:

"Hold on, Companion!"

"What's the matter?"

"My Thane is exhausted and needs some time to recover from being bound. May I please ask that we stay here for the night and slowly walk back on the morrow?"

Farkas clearly did not like that, but Aela and Ria quickly agreed to Lydia's pleading, and the male Companion was overruled. So, we put the bound prisoners in the room where the others had been locked in before, and we set up a watch. All four of us Companions would stand guard in turns for a quarter of the night, and when morning broke, we would eat together and then travel back to the city.

Nothing of note happened during the night, except for a few traders passing and being happy about the location being cleared; that saved them quite a toll they had been prepared to pay. We ate breakfast together when the sun came up in the East, and Fiona and Lydia managed to retrieve their armor from one of the chests inside the southern tower; Nazeem had already found his clothes in the evening before. Once we had retrieved and prepared our three prisoners, who also got something to drink and to eat, we started to walk back to Whiterun on the road. Fiona kept close to Lydia and still did not talk to anybody except her housecarl; she looked very confused and uneasy. Nazeem, the Redguard who had been kidnapped, did not even make an attempt to show some gratitude, but behaved like it had been our duty to come for him; he boasted like this:

"I actually advise the Jarl on political matters. My input is invaluable, of course. But this is all probably a bit over your head."

Fortunately his ranting was interrupted by two people coming down from the side path to Guldun Rock to our left. They wore long robes and had no visible weapons, and somehow they reminded me of the Cultists who had been sent by Miraak, although their robes had a different style, pattern and color. I was prepared for problems, but first we needed to talk of course. The people approached, and they studied us carefully, until one of them spoke:

"You, is that the Dragonborn you have in your group?"

Some of us nodded, and the person spoke again:

"Let me warn you all. The Dragon Cult is alive again, and we will prevent you from getting in Alduin՚s way. The Cult and the Dragon Priests will rise, and we will cherish the return of the World Eater. Everybody who supports the Dragonborn and aids her in her tasks will feel our wrath, and you shall never be safe. Dragonborn, this is your only and final warning – leave the province and never come back, or you will die!"

Despite those words, the two cultists made no attempt to attack, but the words had been very clear. I shuddered a little, and I was not sure to what extent those cultists were able to do what they had announced. That was not in the game, or was it?

When the two had gone and were out of hearing distance, Vilkas started to laugh and stated:

"Come on, there is no reason to believe them. Dragon priests, if any of them are still alive, are only found deep in the darkest parts of ruins, and I am sure that the Dragon Cult had become fully extinct in the First Era. We should not take their threats serious!"

I was quite sure that he was mistaken at least about dragon priests only to be found deep in ruins; from the game I could clearly remember an encounter with such a fierce enemy somewhere high up in the mountains northeast of Whiterun, with a dragon priest arising from a sarcophagus under open sky, next to a word wall and a dragon lair. Hopefully the Companions was right about the rest, at least, and I sincerely hoped that he was, but nevertheless, the encounter had made some of us think, and Fiona at least showed some concern on her face.

When we approached the crossroads southeast of the city, Nazeem pointed at the next farm and claimed:

"I own Chillfurrow Farm over there, you see. Very successful business; obviously."

Put off by his arrogant and ungrateful attitude, none of us even tried to talk to him any more, and we were happy to get back to the city gate. Once inside, Nazeem went straight to his city home, which was to my surprise located next to the 'Drunken Huntsman' inn in the Plains District, rather than close to the other more noble homes in the Wind District. While Farkas and Aela went up to the Cloud District to deliver our three captives to the prison, Fiona, Ria and I made sure that Lydia was taken into the Temple of Kynareth to get her arm properly fixed. Being a loyal housecarl she first refused to stay there, until I pointed out that she would be able to serve her Thane much better once her arm was fully functional again; Danica would make sure of that.

Outside of the temple I also saw Lucia, the orphan girl, walking around with a happy looking Garm. I recalled when I had brought the two of them together, and the girl beamed when she saw me:

"Balu! See, Garm is my best friend now, and we spend time with each other almost every day!"

I had allowed her to use my short name, and it was easy to see that both girl and dog were getting along very nicely. I replied:

"Hey, Lucia! Good to see you, and I am glad to see that! Is the priest feeding you well?"

"Oh yes, and it is so great to get one full meal each day. Sometimes he's also telling me a story, and I tell him what I see in the city. He does not get out much, but once or twice a week he even walks around with Garm and me. Need to run – see you!"

Fiona, Ria and I climbed up the stairs to the Cloud District and met Aela and Farkas, and we stepped into Dragonsreach to report to the steward, Proventus Avenicci. When he learned that we had both rescued the citizen and cleared the Towers, he handed over the combined bounty, amounting to 4000 septims. That was quite some money, and as I knew, half of that would be paid into the common pot in Kodlak՚s quarters. Even then, there was going to be 500 septims for me, and I was rather happy about that.

[Author's Notes: Unlike the game, people can actually surrender in this 'real' Skyrim. I mean, in the game bandits sometimes shout 'I yield' or 'I cannot best you' or so, but they attack again as soon as they have recovered a bit. BTW, I'd really love to get a few more reviews!]