Chapter 65: The Stormcloak Camp

[19th – 20st of Evening Star 4E 201]

Fiona and I had been declared outlaws by General Tullius after we had met him and Legate Rikke in Castle Dour, and we had had to leave the city as quickly as possible. We had decided to avoid the main roads and had turned southwest from Dragon Bridge, and later on that day, after minor encounters with cultists and Forsworn, we had entered a small fort, more like a set of caves, to avoid being seen by Imperial troops. Inside we had met some kind of adventurer and a few enchanted spiders, and we had explored further, until we had come upon a blocked passage and a set of four levers. Clearly this was some kind of puzzle, but how to approach it? While we were still searching for potential hints, so far failing to find any, Janina stepped forward and announced:

"Does anybody mind if Rayya and I try to find out how this works?"

Nobody objected, and I freely admitted: "Fine from my side; I am not sure if I have the patience for such a puzzle."

Both Redguards were smart enough to cover themselves with shields they borrowed – Janina and Rayya both preferred to dual wield scimitars and did not usually carry shields with them – before they operated the first lever, but there weren't any nasty surprises. However, the operation was more complicated than expected; it wasn't like one lever controlled one set of spikes, but some levers either controlled several groups of spikes or even just inverted one or more sets. In addition to that, sometimes spike movement happened with a delay, too. Rayya helped, but I saw that Janina did most of the thinking, and my respect for her grew. It took them maybe twenty minutes and dozens of attempts, but eventually they succeeded and the passage was fully open.

Once we went ahead, we encountered several more spiders, all of the enchanted type, and we learned that it was better to approach them while hiding behind a shield. Once a larger spider even descended from the ceiling, but that was not too much of a challenge for us; we managed to kill it with bolts and arrows before it got too close to us. Apparently this had been an enchanted spider as well, as some kind of flame cloak showed when it died, but due to the distance we had managed to keep nobody got hurt by that. In one of the next rooms we found a small lab with an alchemy table, some ingredients and a journal on a side table; there was not much written into it:

Notes and Results It would seem the smaller specimens cannot survive the infusion process. Application of the serum results in a short burst of elemental energy, followed by death. I will have to change the formula before trying again. The larger subjects, however, have taken to the transformation nicely. For now, they are stored away in their pens until I can examine them further.

Infusion process? What was this about? It looked more and more like somebody was experimenting here, but for what purpose? However, the 'short burst of elemental energy, followed by death' was quite like we observed and experienced a few times once such a spider was killed. While we still tried to interpret the note, we heard some strange noise behind a locked wooden door; Fiona swiftly picked the lock, and the spider attacking us right away did not really come as a surprise. Once we had disposed of it, we found some food, candles, ingredients and various minor potions, specifically those to gain some resistance against shock and fire.

A few passages, locked doors and spiders later we came to a kind of balcony overlooking a larger room. Ahead and down from us there was a person dressed in black mage robes, and he stood next to a table with a spider on top of it. He faced in the other direction and did something, and we heard him murmuring without understanding the words. Apparently this was the person doing the weird experiments with spiders. Most likely he was not going to listen to us, but I was not ready to attack before talking first. Antonius, Fiona and Lydia got their bows ready, and Janina and Rayya got their scimitars out, just in case; it was always good to be prepared. Silently I jumped down and landed on all four of my soft paws, a few meters behind the mage, and when I was upright again I asked:

"Mage, may I inquire what exactly you are doing here?"

He turned around and looked angry:

"What? Who are you? How did you get this far?"

"Does it matter? Would you care to enlighten me about your experiments? I'm a scholar myself, and maybe I can learn from you."

Judged by his reaction he had only seen me and not noticed my companions who waited on the balcony, in semi-darkness. He snorted and announced:

"Learn from me? You won't have time for that, but your corpse will feed my spiders for weeks, Khajiit. Now die, you fool!"

He did not give me a chance to stop him but shot a shock spell against me right away. I moved to the side, but due to the close distance it partially hit me anyway, and my nerves vibrated. However, one second later the mage was hit by three arrows at the same time and fell down to the ground. While I needed a few minutes to recover, my companions jumped or climbed down from the balcony. Antoninus made sure that I was mostly all right, and the others looked around and also looted the mage. As I learned, he did not have much of value on him, but a special key. Janina and Rayya examined the adjacent rooms, and when they were back they told us that they had found the mage's quarters, with a nice supply of valuable ingredients, namely glow dust, fire salts and frost salts; they had also found a Shrine of Julianos. This was one of the Nine Divines, as I recalled, but I needed to ask:

"Julianos? Why would that mage have a Shrine to him here?"

My male housecarl explained:

"Julianos is the God of Wisdom and Logic and is often worshiped by wizards, mages, and scholars alike."

That made sense, I guessed, and Jordis added with a nod:

"To the Nords, Julianos is also known as Jhunal, father of language and mathematics, and he is indeed usually associated with magic and thus is often revered by wizards."

Janina came back from an adjacent room now and announced:

"Based on some notes we found, this place is called 'Fort Harmugstahl'. The notes do not say, though, who built it and what the original purpose might have been."

A few minutes later, when I was fully fit again, we left the cavern, ignoring the few spiders in the cells along one wall, and Rayya guided us to a passage which looked like an exit. We were starting to relax, assuming that we had the fighting behind us now, and this might explain why we missed the next attack. We were just passing through another large cavern, and for some reason none of us really paid attention to the various spider webs and eggs. All of a sudden, many small spiders came out of corners and niches, and a couple of huge ones descended from the ceiling. Our housecarls reacted quickly and started to fight, but this time we could not prevent that some of us were hit by spider poison once or even several times. My two saber cats also helped, and eventually we defeated all spiders, but we found that, while we still had some potions for health and magicka, we had only very few against poisoning. I had been hit by poison spit at least three times; after the first hit, my reaction had been much slower, and the two Redguards also got several poison doses in them. Their habit of not using a shield might work well in combat against bandits or many beasts, but, like me, they had nothing to stop spider spit. Lydia and Antonius had been the only ones in the group not affected at all, and they were quick to help us back to the mage's quarters, where we found a few beds at least. We had planned to move further south today, but with the lingering poison in most of us, we needed to rest first.

In the game, poison from frostbite spiders was active just for a very limited period of time, maybe a minute or so, but maybe the spiders in here were different, or several hits in sequence were just more serious and longer lasting. Anyway, Lydia and Antonius took care of us. As I was told later on, Fiona also recovered rather quickly; maybe her Dragon souls helped with that, but she had only been hit once. Lydia was not a magic wielding person, and thus she took over the cooking using the campfire and pot in the quarters, while both Fiona and Antonius used their restoration magic on the rest of us when needed, to keep us alive. I was very dizzy for several hours at least and barely noticed what was going on around me, and my head only started to clear up when Antonius told me that it was already the middle of the night, based on his judgment.

Our companions' care, a good rest and a healthy breakfast got us all fit again, and thus we could finally proceed towards the exit in the next morning, or at least at a time we suspected to be the next morning. Soon we ended up on a balcony in the entrance area and could jump down from there. Before getting out of the fort again – who had decided that this was a fort and not a cave? – Fiona asked:

"Does anybody understand what the mage wanted to achieve? It looks like he had some success in actually enchanting spiders, but for what purpose?"

Nobody had an answer for her, and I did not understand this either. Maybe he had just been mad? Was there any good reason for enchanting spiders? Sure, they'd emit that flame cloak when dying or being looted, but that wasn't a strong one. Spiders were also not very robust and easy to kill. Only if the enchantment was much stronger, that might make some sense, like sending kamikaze spiders into camps or so and setting such a camp on fire? No, a fireball spell would be much easier and more efficient. I just did not get it, but probably I did not have to understand everything in this world.

Now we cautiously opened the main door and looked around. Hanni and Nanni sniffed the air, but did not look alarmed, and judged by the position of the sun, the time was mid morning. Slowly we retraced our steps from earlier on that day and approached the river again; hopefully the Imperials had moved on since yesterday.

As we had planned to do before, we followed the river bank south, and we were able to proceed without a problem for some time, maybe for an hour or so. At one time I looked up at the cliffs to our right, and I thought that I saw sunshine reflecting on some metal and I warned my companions. We sought cover behind some rocks for now, and while we did that, there was a small group of soldiers crossing the river ahead of us; the river was not very deep, and they only got wet up to their hips. Based on their armor, this was a troop of Stormcloaks, six of them. They looked around, but seemed to believe that there was no danger around. When they had almost reached the western bank, a volley of arrows was released from the cliffs ahead of us, and two of the Stormcloaks dropped into the water; two more got some minor wounds. So, were there Imperials up on the cliffs? Was this the troops we had seen before? If so, did we dare to get involved? Anyway, Hanni and Nanni did not wait but raced up there, followed by Spirit who I conjured right away. According to what I could see they got up in time to prevent a second volley of arrows, and I hurried to follow them, with my companions behind me. Up on the rocks there was indeed a detachment of Imperial soldiers, and they had obviously tried to ambush the Stormcloaks. Getting attacked by three small saber cats was more an annoyance rather than a real danger for them, but the cubs were nimble enough to avoid being hit by swords. Now, with Janina and me facing them, the situation changed, and moments later Antonius and Jordis joined us, while the others were coming up a little more slowly. The Imperials had more than a dozen soldiers, and they were all fully trained, so that we were on the defensive at first. This changed quickly when Fiona arrived, and her first 'FUS RO' shout pushed at least four enemies back.

I had a big sword fighter as my adversary; he had been sideways and not affected by Fiona's shout, and he pushed on. Fortunately, my own fighting style had improved a lot, due to training from Vilkas and others, and my axe came close to him a few times. As I had done multiple times before, I raised my left arm and cast flames against the soldier, and when he yelped and stopped for a moment, I had the opening I needed to score a good hit. He yelped once more, and he was dead on the ground moments later. When being honest to myself, I had to admit that my fighting style was still not very good, though much improved compared to months ago. I had learned, though, that I could take advantage of my long arms to keep enemies at a distance which made it hard for them to score a hit on my body; in addition to that, I was able to use my superior strength to drive my big glass axe through an enemy's defenses, cutting through most shields and most armor. When I used my full strength, I usually succeeded to severely wound an enemy warrior even when they tried to block me, unless they had very superior fighting skills and/or a high quality shield and armor. For the latter, a shock or flame spell was an option, as I had learned earlier.

Two Imperial archers had somehow managed to detach themselves from the fight, and they were suddenly shooting at us from some distance. They were immediately finding themselves under attack by three Stormcloaks, though. Those had obviously realized our fighting and come up in time to assist, and they quickly took care of the archers. Once this was done, they helped us with the remaining Imperials, and a few minutes later the fight was over. We looked around to make sure we had not missed any Imperials, and the three Stormcloak soldiers came over to greet us; one of them said:

"We are in your debt, as it appears. We had not seen the Imperial ambush, and they would have eliminated our group if you had not attacked them. You have our thanks."

"You are welcome" Janina replied politely.

One of the soldiers looked at me again, scratched his head and said:

"Somehow you look familiar to me. Is it possible that we have met before?"

I really could not tell, but then he had the right idea:

"Wait a second, weren't you at Helgen when the Imperials wanted to kill Jarl Ulfric and the dragon attacked? Both you and the short Bosmer were there, right?"

"Yes, that's correct. So you were one of the Stormcloaks who went through the keep with Ralof and us?"

"Right, you came with Ralof. Yes, we first met in the torturer's room, but got cut off later when part of the ceiling crashed down."

"So, how did you get out?"

"We waited for some time and then slowly moved back to the upper levels. The dragon had left, most of the houses were on fire, and most of the Imperials and Thalmor had also gone; maybe they assumed that we had all died. We managed to join up with Jarl Ulfric who had been hiding in a partially destroyed tower and got back to Windhelm. Ralof told us later how you escaped and got to Riverwood."

"Is Ralof with you here?"

"He's actually not far from here; he is currently visiting our camp in this area. Would you care to see him again?"

"Of course! Let's go."

We got down to the river, handed over some healing potions to the wounded Stormcloaks and followed their leader, while helping the injured people along. We walked uphill for maybe half an hour and were lead into a small side ravine, which expanded into a small valley. There was a camp in there, and while the injured soldiers were guided to a medium sized tent at the side, likely area dedicated to the healers and their patients, our guide lead us directly to the largest tent. A few soldiers were bent over a map, and when we approached, they turned around. One of them was indeed Ralof, and he smiled when he saw us:

"B'lushona, Fiona, is that really you?"

"Yes, Ralof, it's us, and we are surprised to see you here, too!"

Our guide now cut in and reported about the ambush and our help, and Ralof smiled again:

"It appears that you came at the right time, and I am glad that you remember your friends."

"It's not only that, Ralof, but we do have an additional reason now to dislike the Imperials."

I told him how we had been treated by General Tullius in Solitude, and when I had ended, we did the introductions we should have done earlier. We learned that a Kottir Red-Shoal, who was standing next to Ralof, was commander of this Reach Stormcloak camp, and that Ralof had arrived on the day before with new instructions from Galmar Stone-Fist.

"So," Ralof added, "you want to get back to Whiterun for now?"

I nodded and confirmed: "Aye, that is our plan. We have been forced to make a detour, but we hope that we can evade the Imperials by either heading east to Rorikstead or finding the road from Markarth to Whiterun."

"I am not so sure about the road; actually, I have seen Imperial patrols on many roads. But what about this – I need to head back towards Windhelm tomorrow, and we should be able to travel together until Whiterun. I know a path which should be safe, and I'd be happy to have you around."

We looked at each other and quickly agreed. Ralof smiled and added:

"In addition, with our number, we don't need to be afraid of normal Imperial patrols, too. By the way, how did you manage to have two young and tamed saber cats with you, B'lushona?"

I told him and the other Stormcloaks about the trip to High Hrothgar, how we had been attacked by an adult snowy saber cat and how I had found the cubs soon after.

"I did not think that saber cats can be tamed." one of the Stormcloaks mentioned.

"Well, you are probably right about that, at least for adult ones, but it's a different situation if you find them early and raise them; so far, it has worked well for me, and my girls and I love each other."

I emphasized my point by cuddling with my two cats, and I saw more than one hardened soldier's face smiling. We talked a little bit more around the fire and got a late lunch served, and Ralof suggested:

"Look, I've got some business to complete today and discuss the situation and future plans with Commander Red-Shoal here; would it be all right for you to relax, and if you want, maybe help the healers with the wounded soldiers? We can talk more when get moving tomorrow."

When we nodded, he was off. We did as he had suggested and mostly relaxed; here, in the middle of a Stormcloak camp, we should be reasonably safe. Later, some of us helped out in the healing tent, too. In the evening we had dinner together around the fire and listened to some of the soldiers telling a short story or two, but soon the camp prepared for the night; we laid down our bedrolls and got to sleep.

[Author's Notes: The Stormcloak camp in the story is right where the 'Reach Stormcloak Camp' is located in the game.]