Chapter 51: Crabber's Shanty

[6th – 7th of Evening Star 4E 201]

Together with my Shield-Brother Athis and my housecarl Antoninus I had started to travel from Whiterun towards Solitude to do a task the Harbinger had asked me to do, and yesterday we had made it to Rorikstead, our second night stop. On a quick walk outside in the dark, before getting to sleep, I had met a Nord girl who said that she was getting lessons in magic, but had to keep this a secret from her father and her sister. Evidently, this was not 'proper' for a Nord, at least for a conservative one; this fully matched the experience from the game – something like 'you keep your distance with that magic'.

Right after breakfast on the next day we moved on from Rorikstead. As promised to Kodlak, I would try to retrieve a book for the Bard's College, and supposedly it was to be found in a Nordic ruin called 'Dead Men's Respite'. The name was not very comforting, but I had my housecarl, Athis, and my 'girls' around, so that should be fine. Just before we left the inn we got a warning from the innkeeper:

"Folks, be careful up north. We got a warning from a couple of traders coming from Dragon Bridge that a dragon was seen from afar, above the hills north of Robber's Gorge."

All right, this was not really a surprise. Alduin had obviously managed to resurrect a few more dragons, and most of them would have found a lair somewhere and sometimes bother the people living in the respective area. So far we had not heard about any major attacks, like a dragon burning down an entire town or so, but maybe this was just a question of time.

The first couple of hours into our today's hike were uneventful, and just about half an hour north of Rorikstead I noticed a small path branching off to the left. Somehow that reminded me of something, and I smiled when I recalled that this was likely where a small hut could be found, which I had used in a story I had written back in my old life; in that story my companion, the female Khajiit Dragonborn, had found a strange and powerful bow in the dungeon below the hut, and it had been called the 'Bow of the Jedi'. No, finding something like that here was certainly not likely at all, but maybe at some time in the future I might want to check out the place anyway; most likely there wasn't even a dungeon there.

Further onward I noticed that not all locations which were likely to generate random encounters in the game did so in reality. When the rock walls on the sides leveled down, near the branch where a road lead west towards Karthwasten – the weathered road sign refreshed my memory – I had almost always met bandits when playing. Today, they were mysteriously absent, but that was just all right for me on this fine day.

Athis announced:

"Here, where the road west leads towards Karthwasten and Markarth, we enter the hold Hjaalmarch."

"That's the one with Morthal as main city, right?"

"It sure is, yes."

"And Hjaalmarch is under Imperial control, isn't it?"

My housecarl replied to that: "It is, yes. The hold's jarl, Idgrod Ravencrone, is a mystic, as people say, and she sometimes has visions. I don't know if this is good or bad, though, and I haven't been in Morthal recently."

"Hjaalmarch is not a terribly important hold, I guess?"

"No, not by itself. However, if Tullius decided to proceed towards The Pale and maybe Winterhold, he'd need to pass through it."

"Are there any signs of the Legion moving east?"

"Not that I'm aware of, no. I would expect, though, that the southern route might be more attractive."

"The southern route?"

"From Falkreath they could attack the Rift, and that is probably a more lucrative goal than The Pale. After all, there is some potential trade with Morrowind, and the Empire will want to get this back under control."

I thought back to the time when I had first met Mia, the young alchemist who had lived in a shack south of Ivarstead for a year or two; she had told me that Imperials and Stormcloaks sometimes fought skirmishes in and around the pass between Helgen and Ivarstead. Maybe the Stormcloaks already scouted Falkreath hold and the Imperials the western part of the Rift, in preparation for an attack on the other hold? At this time, at least, this wasn't my business, and unless my Jarl got involved, I sure wouldn't.

While I learned a little more about potential strategic consideration from Antonius, we followed the main road north, which descended down to the valley ahead of us, and a few times we could hear the distant noise from the rapids of the river east of us. The road did not get very close to the river yet, though, and for now I enjoyed the view ahead, with various hills of different sizes, plains, and river in the valley. The clouds and the light mist of the day before had mostly vanished, and far in the distance I thought that I could see a dragon, but I could not be sure. When we got close to the valley floor, a fortification was clearly visible on the other side of the bridge, and from the game I recalled that this was 'Robber's Gorge'. When I had cleared this location, I had always made sure that I had plenty of followers with me, and I had no intention to go head-to-head with a larger group of bandits and a strong and heavily armored chief, who had forced me to reload more than once in the game. From our current position, still higher than the river, I could see that the place was indeed populated, and thus I told my housecarl when we got close to the bridge:

"Athis, Antonius, the camp over there seems to be fortified and well manned. Let's circumvent the bandits and focus on our goal. The small river right of us is not deep, so let's wade through it and head east for now."

"Right, my Thane" was the prompt answer, and Athis was in favor as well.

We got our legs wet and reached the other shore, with a short stop on the small island in the middle. I saw no reason to linger in the water, specifically as soon as I saw a slaughterfish come closer. Hanni and Nanni, though, obviously intended to find out what kind of an animal that was, and they soon learned about it, judged by the whining I heard. While one of my cubs got bitten, the other one decided to take revenge, and although it was not a quick fight, the fish lost. The saber cat decided to not eat it, though; maybe it smelled bad.

When we were all on the shore again, I made some effort to get my fur dry again, mostly by casting a low level fire spell on myself, which kind of worked. Antonius was amused when he noticed that, but his legs did not have fur. All he had to do was to remove his greaves and pants and get them on again after the passing. Nonetheless, I was still quite happy with my Khajiit body, and I was not going to give it back. My cubs got almost completely wet, of course, but they did not seem to mind. They shook out their own fur when we were on the other side, and that was good enough for them.

Half an hour later we arrived at a small hut, and a lone fisherman sat outside with a fishing rod. A number of dead mudcrabs around told us that he had quite some business here, and he invited us to sit down with him and enjoy a meal of mudcrab meat. We nodded and were just about to accept when a loud roar was heard in the air; a dragon approached.

"What the…" my housecarl started, Athis cursed quickly, and I got my new long distance weapon out. The beast started to circle around us, and I used the opportunity to practice my archery skill by sending out bolts. The first bolts missed, but as the bronze dragon kept circling in a repetitive pattern and I found out that the bolts traveled faster than arrows, I soon got the hang of it, and my fourth bolt was a hit. The dragon roared and blew frost down to us. I jumped to the side and my housecarl did the same, but the fisherman did not. He got hit and briefly shuddered, but than he laughed:

"Do your best, dragon – I am not a Nord for nothing!"

I continued to operate my crossbow, and the dragon soon crash landed north of us, but at some distance. Getting close was still dangerous, but we got unexpected help – a couple of fully grown saber cats claimed this spot of land as theirs and did not approve of a dragon sitting on it; thus they both attacked with fervor. Hanni and Nanni were about to join them, but I held them back; they were not so likely to survive that encounter. Spirit, though, happily joined the fight, and that was all right, as I could re-conjure her at any time.

Of course the dragon was still more than powerful enough to dispose of the two adult predator cats and Spirit, but the fight at least allowed us to get close. As soon as the dragon was done defending itself against the saber cats, I attacked with a flame spell in my left hand and my enchanted battle axe in the right, doing my best to keep a respectful distance from head and tail. Before the dragon knew what happened, I had landed my first blow on a wing and blasted fire on it, jumping back right away after that. However, before the others could attack as well, the dragon somehow managed to get to the air again and resumed circling around, though with obvious difficulty, as one of the wings was damaged. A few more hits with bolts and arrows forced the beast to crash land again, and resumed my attacks with flame and axe right away. With the dragon focused on me and turning around to face me, Antonius now hacked into one of the wings and Athis into the other, forcing the animal to turn its head again, and I was able to land a very powerful two-handed blow on the side of its head with my axe. The beast was obviously a weaker one, and it succumbed to my final blow. Of course, it had been weakened before by my bolts, by Antonius' arrows and specifically by the two adult saber cats.

Now, with no Dragonborn around, the dragon did not disintegrate and there was no soul absorption, of course, and the bronze dragon stayed as it was. Antonius was quite impressed nonetheless:

"So, dragons are around again, indeed. I have seen the dragon you helped killing just before I was assigned to you, and I recall the event at the Western Watchtower, when the Dragonborn was named Thane. Have you encountered others, too, my Thane?"

"The first dragon I ever saw was at Helgen, and the one at Western Watchtower was the first to get killed. Later, there was one at Valtheim Towers, when I cleared this place together with some other Companions, and there was the one in Whiterun, which I killed with the help of the city guard, yes. And, wait, there was another one with the Dragonborn around, close to Oakwood as I remember. This is the fifth one to be killed, I guess."

"Let's hope that there aren't that many altogether."

The fisherman asked what we planned to do with the two dead saber cats, and he was happy to hear that we did not have any specific plans and allowed him to claim them:

"That's real great. I can sell the pelts, and now, with the two sabers being gone, I may be able to go hunting again in the area over there. I really love crab meat, but I am ready for some variation now. Please do take your time now to help yourself to a meal!"

We sat down and finally got to eat, after our earlier attempt had been rudely interrupted by the dragon's appearance. Crab meat was not exactly my favorite, but not bad at all, and we indulged. I was not an expert on that kind of food, but in my opinion the fisherman had prepared it well, and the meat was very tender and tasty. When we were done and tried to thank the good fisherman, he responded:

"You are very much welcome, and thank you gentlemen, for your fighting the dragon. Please drop by again when you are in the area – you will always find a good meal in my shanty."

"We will certainly do that. For today, as it's getting late, would you mind if we make camp close to your hut?"

"No, not at all, of course. Feel free to find a soft spot in the grass, and help yourselves to more crab meat in the morning."

We dropped our bedrolls and went to sleep, and my two cubs would certainly warn us if danger approached.

As the good man had suggested, we ate some more crab meat in the morning, and when we left, we waved to the Nord who was fishing in the creek.

The map indicated that all we had to do was to turn northeast for half an hour or so while following the river, and once we had done that and looked north again, there was indeed a road leading upwards. The Nordic tomb loomed in the distance, and another half an hour later we arrived on the main platform with the entrance. We rested for a few minutes, I exchanged looks with Athis and my housecarl, and when we were in agreement and mentally prepared, we opened the gate and stepped inside.

We found ourselves in a medium sized room with rough stone walls; it was dimly lit by some daylight shimmering through a small opening in the ceiling and a couple of lit braziers. I did not really get it; why were so many dark interior places lit by braziers and torches and such, and who refilled them or replaced the torches? Was that part of the magic of this world? Or was it really true, like Freya had suggested in Bleak Falls Barrow, that draugr worshiped a dragon priest or so on a regular basis and thus kept the lights on and refilled all of the time? But not every ruin had a dragon priest in it, as far as I knew.

The room had a stone table in the center, and it held some items on it, including a claw which was displayed in a very prominent way. That was suspicious, as I thought; if there was a dragon claw openly visible, surely others had seen it already and tried to take it, so why was it still there? The center table was surrounded by four massive stone pillars, and when I looked around, I saw that there were a number of upright coffin like structures and niches around the walls; some of them were open and had a resting or dead draugr in it, some other were closed and did not show what might be inside. Well, technically the draugr were always dead, of course. I took some time to look at the situation, and Antonius suggested:

"This place looks like a trap!"

"Agreed. I bet something is going to happen once we take the items from the table. I wonder if we can dispose of the draugr first?"

"Let's try. You left, me right?"

"Sure. Let me conjure my familiar first, too. Athis, please stand watch and help where needed."

The elf nodded; I conjured Spirit and had her stand guard next to my girls, and then Antonius and I each sneak attacked the first draugr in our row. We both scored a kill, but the next draugr awoke from the noise. No problem; we could focus on those now, and the three saber cat cubs helped. Ten seconds later no moving draugr was in sight any longer, but a ghost suddenly materialized in the room. He did not say a word, but pointed at the claw on the table. I carefully picked it up – the claw shimmered red like a ruby – and the ghost vanished. At the same time, the gate which had blocked the other exit so far, also vanished and opened the way forward. We were just about to step through when there was some movement to my left, and I barely had time to duck and evade a sword a draugr had swung at my neck. Obviously we must have missed that one earlier, and it turned out that it was a more dangerous one, too. It nimbly evaded my counter attack and managed to score a hit on my left leg with a frost enchanted sword, partially penetrating my armor. Ouch! That hurt, and my leg was going numb right away, so that I needed to sit down. Fortunately, my companions stepped in, and while they got busy with the high level draugr, assisted by Hanni and Nanni and Spirit, I could focus on my injured leg. Proper team work between them got the job done, and I continued to get my leg back to proper condition while Athis and Antonius scanned the room for more loot; they found a few gems and septims, and we were all in agreement that taking loot from draugr and also from chests and urns in such a tomb was acceptable. I was glad that I had talked about that topic with Andurs, the priest of Arkay in Whiterun, before.

A few minutes later we proceeded, and after a series of winding passages and a few more draugr we arrived in a room with a pull chain. Activating it made a number of rotating doors get in motion, and it was unclear at first what to do here. After a few attempts we worked together and solved the small puzzle, and we got further into the ruin. I was really glad that I did not have to face this place all on my own. Sure, in my former life I had occasionally talked to some other Skyrim players, and one of them at least had claimed that he used the highest difficulty settings and did almost everything without followers. I did not have such an ambition, not only because I did not have a 'Load' button available if something went terribly wrong, but also because my reflexes were not working well in such an environment. Overall, I clearly preferred to have the odds heavily weighed in my favor, and I was more than willing to keep my eyes open and my ears perked to find out if more free followers were available for me. The game had had a number of them, mostly from mods, and with one of those follower frameworks one could easily have up to ten or so around, ready to protect you and face any enemies you encountered. I was really curious to see if some of the mod based followers might show up here, too. After all, I had already met Vilja, and I had heard about Inigo. Would I also get a chance to meet Sofia, Recorder or Auri? I wouldn't mind at all to have a group of tough and pretty young female heroines around me to protect me and maybe more.

Now, back to reality. The ghost showed up from time to time and pointed out where to go, and after what looked to us like hours but was probably not even one, diving into a basin of water, defeating draugr and frostbite spiders, avoiding a number of traps and more, we eventually reached a spiral staircase leading down, and at the bottom a handle opened a door. It provided access to a small room with a corpse holding a book in bony hands. A small note identified the body as the remainder of one Svaknir, and the book seemed to be waiting for us. After carefully looking around for potential traps, I grabbed the book, and the ghost which had briefly lead our way a few times before showed up again, nodding and leaving quickly through the spiral stairs. I had a brief look at the book; the title was about King Olaf and there were verses inside, so that it probably was what we had come for. The book was apparently not in prime condition, but that was something the college headmaster would have to deal with.

There was no obvious way forward, so that went back to the spiral stairs and up again, and soon the ghost deviated from the way we had come from and turned into a side passage we had not investigated before. The passage ended at a door with a magical aura around it; the ghost made sure that we had arrived, waved his hands and made the aura disappear. And indeed, when I tried to open the door, I found it unlocked, and we stepped through.

"Let's proceed with care, Shield-Brother" Athis suggested. "A ghost leading us this way does not imply that it is safe for us."

"Agreed" I nodded. "Actually, I wonder why we don't just use the same way as we came. Why risk a different way and different dangers?"

"The ghost is leading in that direction, and as it has been very helpful so far, there is probably a reason behind it. Yes, we may have to face additional dangers, but there is also a good chance of finding more high quality loot, too. I vote for going this way, as the ghost suggests."

"Okay, Athis, I bow to your experience; let's move."

For now, though, no danger was waiting, but we came upon one of those Nordic puzzle doors, one of those with three rings around a lock with three holes. My two companions looked at the sturdy door and looked confused; the ghost waited close to us, but did not provide any further hints. I assumed that neither Athis nor Antonius had ever seen such a special door before, and I recalled that I had picked up the Ruby Claw earlier; I got it out to show it to my companions:

"Look, Antonius, Athis, have you ever seen such a claw before?"

Both of them shook their head, and Athis replied:

"I have heard people talk about such claws, but I have never actually seen one before we picked this one up earlier today. What it is good for?"

"See this massive door here and the three rings around the lock?"

"A strange door and lock, indeed. The three holes in the lock almost look like the three extensions of the claw might fit." Antonius suggested.

"They do, actually. However, that by itself does not operate the door yet. First, we need to rotate the rings in the proper position."

"But how can we know what the proper position is?" Athis asked.

I smiled: "Look at the claw's back side and see the symbols here?"

"Wow, they match some of the symbols on the rings! How could you have known?"

I explained: "I know because I have seen and used such a claw and lock before. In Bleak Falls Barrow, together with the Dragonborn, I have encountered a lock I could open with the Golden Claw. I am confident that the system here is the same, just using the Ruby Dragon Claw we found in the entrance area instead of the Golden one."

Both of my companions got a chance to examine the claw and the lock in more detail, and Athis volunteered to set the rings, followed by Antonius using the claw and unlocking the stone door. We heard the scratching of stone against stone, some dust was raised, and the door slowly sank into the ground.

Now, who or what was going to wait for us on the other side?

[Author's Notes: The bandit chief at Robber's Gorge indeed forced me to reload quite a few times; nowadays, I only go there when I have a few capable followers with me.

The mentioned events around Lund's Hut with the 'Bow of the Jedi' refer to my older story 'My adventures with the Dragonborn'.

May I kindly ask for a few more reviews? I really do appreciate any feedback I can get, and I try to respond to every single one (except for the guest reviews which do not allow that, of course)! Also, I'd love to quote sentences from reviews in upcoming interludes, too. A big thank you to those who do write reviews on a more or less regular basis!]