And we continue! I've only got a few reviews so far though... i feel sad. Please review, I NEEDZ IT!
Empress of Death
Tylermech66
Neka sighed in relief as the biting wind and cold were taken away, it was still cold, but this cold she liked. But the damp, not so much.
Getting her bearings, Neka rushed behind a pillar as she heard some curious muttering.
"Olev, Argor! What are you doing letting in the cold!" A Nordic woman wearing nothing but a few furs stomped up to the doors but then looked confused, obviously she thought someone had entered.
"Huh? Must have been the wind. I guess even iron submits to the cold, ha." The bandit woman walked back to a small fire with several other bandits. As Neka watched she spotted the lecherous looks of the men over the few women in the band. The first woman seemed to give a resigned sigh and was about to remove her top before Neka decided she wasn't in the mood.
She prepared an overloaded fireball between her hands and walked towards the small camp, one of them had only just noticed her before she released the flames. Pained screams echoed through the chamber as most of them died. A few, burnt and bleeding, got back up but a few firebolts got rid of them.
Neka glanced around a picked the most promising of subjects. Weaving her magic into his body he rose up, wheezing aching breath spewing from his mouth. He was quietly begging to be released and Neka shook her head.
"No, your mine now, obey." It stopped struggling and followed her through the tunnels, the last vestiges of its mind fading away.
Neka had formed a theory as to why the dead did such things. The mind and the soul were separate. The brain made you think but the souls also did. It confused her but the more she experimented the more she learned.
She collected loot from everywhere, chests, drawers, urns, coffins. she didn't care about the sanctity of the dead. She even collected several tiny sealed jars of ash to experiment on, a long run experiment of her's that was still ongoing.
Finally, they reached a chamber where a giant spider dropped from the ceiling. She sent her thrall at it and it caused some damage, but the spider destroyed it before advancing on her.
She wasn't used to skyrim's creatures, but Neka loved a challenge. Strafing around the beast while stabbing occasionally with her sword, it finally grew desperate and tried to slam her to the ground with it's legs.
Rolling out of the way she threw a rune on the ground under it and it exploded up into the air. Neka dodged out of the way of a blob of slime.
Rolling her shoulders, Neka finally noticed another Dunmer struggling in the web of a doorway.
"Please, let me out of here!" Neka looked him over and shrugged, an uncaring look in her eye.
"And why should? Your as likely to stab in the back as praise me for saving you." The elf struggled more.
"I can tell you how to open the doorway! You need the claw, but I have the knowledge on how to use it!" Tilting her head, Neka shook her head.
"I have no idea what your talking about, anyway, your in my way." She ran forwards and stabbed into his still neck, almost decapitating him.
She got to the bloody and messy task of removing the webbing from the doorway. Then she riffled through his pockets and in his satchel she found the golden claw and a journal.
Quickly grabbing the journal she looked over his, surprisingly neat, notes on the claw.
"Mm, so there is a power further in that you need to pass a puzzle first, and the answer is on the claw? This sounds less like a security measure and more like a test. Hmm, I like these ancient nords, they're so generous." She smirked at the final bit.
Putting the claw and the journal away, Neka realized that her own journal, with all her research notes and drawings that she would never show anyone, was gone. The imperials had taken it away.
She really hoped they hadn't read it, it held some VERY incriminating evidence, plus...
She blushed,
They better not have read it!
Maybe Helgen will hold it somewhere, in the carts if it wasn't incinerated.
Anyway, back to the task at hand.
Neka got back up and ventured further into the cave, curious about this ancient power.
She made her way down the tomb. Until she started to hear the sounds of machines in the distance. Going slower and more carefully, Neka noticed a large room filled with metal sarcophagi.
Walking into this room without thinking, she noticed the mummified bodies began to move. Cursing herself Neka threw a rune at the feet of one before it got up and threw a fireball at two walking ones who were grouped together. Then just as the rune exploded destroying the first draugr she started flinging firebolts at the approaching Draugr pair.
Finally, they are all down and Neka let her shoulders slump, but before she could catch her breath something large impacted on her back and the breath was knocked out of her as she was flung to the ground.
Quickly rolling to the side Neka spotted a battleaxe wielding Draugr glaring at her.
It was about to slam the axe into her head before Neka rolled forwards, knocking its feet out from under it and pulling out her dagger. Spinning around she stabbed not to its heart but at its head, multiple times.
Finally, after struggling much, the Draugr collapsed and the light left its eyes.
Cautiously this time, Neka had a firebolt ready as she made sure every Draugr was permanently dead before continuing on, avoiding the rather obvious spike wall trap but making sure to memorize the trigger plate so she could spot less obvious traps.
Then she came upon another chamber so she stopped before entering and carefully observed the resting dead. A few of them had better weapons and armor so she marked them in her head as undead while most of the wrapped or extremely shriveled up ones were obviously truly dead.
Throwing a rune next to one she ran forwards and stabbed the head of another. The rune exploded and she threw several fireballs ast the approaching three draugr.
Backstepping she ran forwards and tripped one, stomping on its neck to separate the control from the head to the body, which killed it. The next one she charged a fire ball in her hand but instead of throwing it she grasped its face with her armor claws, boiling away the flesh until the undeath left its body.
The other draugr growled and ran at her, but then she threw the last of her magicka's worth of fire at it until it died.
Huffing, she looked to the swinging blade corridor and groaned.
A few hour later Neka was resting her upper body on her knees by grabbing them. Huffing and puffing, she stayed like that for a minute before standing up again.
Opening the door she let out a gasp of shock at the extremely large cavern.
While she had done some spelunking every now and then in Cyrodiil, none of the caves had had such large expanses. Looking up as she approached the water her jaw dropped at the beautiful view of the what must be the sunset's light on the top of the waterfall. But that light reminded her to quicken her pace otherwise she would have no light to go by.
Walking up to the stone platform Neka suddenly felt drawn to the large stone half circle. Brushing her hands against the seemingly glowing words she suddenly felt its meaning insert itself into her mind.
Fus
For some reason, while she knew this word, it was embedded into her mind, she could not understand it, even if it felt familiar to her very being.
It was frustrating.
But before she could lament on this more, the lid to the sarcophagus blew off into the air, the largest Draugr yet lifted itself out, wielding an equally large greatsword.
Giving out an enraged rattle, it surged forwards, attempting to swing overhead and split her in two.
But Neka rolled to the side and cloaked herself in fire before trying to stab the undead, but the Draugr just ran forwards and got impaled in the stomach, which Neka knew to be a useless part.
It swung down again and Neka attempted to block the attack with her sword, but that was knocked out of her hands and into the creek.
Then the Draugr let out a malicious chuckle, its hate filled eyes growing brighter as Neka began to freak out.
Undead shouldn't have emotions! They at most should only be able to echo their former selves, but she was sure that was independent emotion!
The Draugr was actually pausing to revel in its imminent victory, that was something distinctly... mortal. But then it swung down at her and she slid to the side again, throwing three fireballs, each one knocking the beast back by a few feet. It recovered before sinking into the creek though and gave out a shrieking battlecry.
But before it could charge her again Neka rushed forwards and grasped its face with her left armor claws, letting her fire magic burn into it. She wrapped her right arm around its neck and pulled.
Then with a loud crack its spine was separated, and it fell backwards trapping Neka under it. Breathing heavily, she laid there and tried to catch her breath.
After a minute she shakily got back up and looked over the now truly dead Nord. She spotted a strange tablet of stone.
Picking it up, she saw that it was a map with a few bits of the word wall text here and there. Putting it in her satchel to study later she began to loot the room, taking the large enchanted greatsword to sell later along with the various amounts of gold throughout the room. The things she liked most though were the soul gems, one was even filled. Now she could continue her research.
She also wrote down the strange writing on the wall, strangely when she was writing she seemed to fall into a sort of trance, almost... sensing echoes of a story.
Finally, she found a strange device on a suspicious wall which required her to pull it out and twist. But then the wall began to lift up and she realized it was a shortcut.
Steeling herself, Neka ran through with the fear that it would fall on her, when it didn't she chuckled nervously to herself before continuing on, time to collect her reward.
Walking through the forest along the riverbank, Neka came to an odd shack, an old woman in mage's robes sat there tending to a garden, she waved at her and Neka waved back.
As she left she didn't see the knowing smirk on the old woman's face before she turned back to her gardening.
Back in Riverwood, Neka entered the Riverwood Trader and slumped down in a chair, exhausted. Lucan leaned over the counter excited.
"Do you have my claw?" Neka smirked and took it out of her satchel, raising it in the air and she could have sworn she saw Lucan jump with joy.
Taking it back, he handed her a fat sack of coins along with a few more health and magicka potions.
"Thank you, I really am grateful. I guess it also has sentimental value huh?" She shrugged and began to leave.
"Your welcome here anytime! With a bit of a discount." Neka nodded thankfully and left.
Looking around Riverwood, Neka sold the enchanted greatsword but Alvor hadn't had the money to pay for it, so they made a trade along with the gold. She got a new shortsword, her's bent and twisted.
Then she walked into the sleeping giant inn to rest a bit, and ask the people if there was anyone who knew about that fascinating wall.
Sitting down at a table, the innkeeper came her way.
"So, want anything to eat or drink?" Neka shrugged.
"I guess I'll try some of that Nord mead I'm always hearing about, along with some roasted chicken or whatever meat you have ready." The innkeeper nodded and went to the back to collect those items while Neka took the tablet out of her pack.
Neka ran her fingers over the little holes etched into it and figured that these were important checkpoints of some form. When the innkeeper came back she spoke up.
"Do you know of anyone in Skyrim who studies strange stone walls with ancient script on them? Or the ancient nordic tombs?" The Innkeeper seemed to freeze for the briefest of seconds before replying.
"Yes, there is a mage up in Whiterun who tinkers with such things. I think he's the court mage." Nodding, Neka put the tablet away and dug into her food.
If there was one thing that Neka had to say she liked about Skyrim, then it would be the mead. It had a nice taste unlike most other alcohols (which she didn't usually drink).
It was even better than that home brewed sujamma she had snuck a sip of when she still lived in Solstheim, ah memories!
Securing her pack, Neka began the trek to Whiterun hold.
Ah yes, a tiny bit of filler at the end, but I like this chapter, it lets you see a bit more of Neka other than combat.
I think she's getting fleshed out quite well, and isn't too overpowered, which is a surprise.
As to the bandit thing, well, it just makes sense, at least for the grunt female bandits. In a band of merciless cutthroats, it's not a good thing to be attractive... unless you enjoy it, but meh :P
Also, I know nothing about alcohol, as I don't drink. :P