New World, Same Adventures
The morning sun's light came into my room from the small wooden cracks in the room's ceiling. I was already awake by this time repairing my gear and looking over the supplies I had with me. It was all my standard equipment from the absurd amount of medical supplies, like the fifty or so stimpaks and Med-x. To the diverse sets of weapons and ammunition, from guns to blades and even energy weapons. It may not be all of it, but it's enough to get me through the mission at hand. At least I hope so.
Yesterday was my first taste of what this mission was going to be like. To say the least, I'm worrying. Arthur had shown to be an ok fighter but she needed a lot of work. Combine that with the almost decisive need to drink that ungodly amount of alcohol, and I become more concerned about her liver than any other threats opposing her. Then I have her friends to concern myself with.
The girl Lydia is quickly becoming an interference. After Arthur passed out drunk, Lydia had paid for my room and made me stay here for the night. I didn't much care where I slept but that woman treated the whole interaction with displeasure. If it wasn't for the fact Arthur had told her I'll be joining them on their quests. I'm pretty sure she would have tried to end my life. Clearly, she still distrusts me but as long as I had Arthur's ok, her opinion didn't matter. Even if the two girls were close friends.
"Sir, it's time to...? You're awake!" The door to my room was opened and in came one of the inn's worker's. She has dark colored skin and looked almost out of place in that servant get up. "Sorry to disturb you but someone's asking for you downstairs," This woman didn't give any signs of fear when she looked at me. Which said something cause since I've been here everyone I came across became scared whenever I had my armor on. I only could speculate why that was.
"Tell them I'll be down soon," I told the woman as I finished cleaning my pistol's. The woman left and I was again left alone. With my thoughts now filling my head with possible outcomes of what today could bring. I kept reminding myself over and over about the situation I was in. I had to tell myself that this was all real and if I fail here I will most likely won't be given a second chance. A whole new world filled with things I only thought came from fantasy novels. I know my world had its fair share of absurd things but we never had to worry about Dragon's flying over our heads. No, we had Enclave vertibirds for that.
My thoughts on all of this will have to be put on hold, though. Cause right now I have someone waiting for me and it's rude to leave people waiting. So, I finished putting back together my pistols and grab my riot mask. As well as all my other gear I had left out. Once everything was put back where it belong I clipped my masked to my belt and walked downstairs. There waiting for my was both Arthur and Lydia. With the former having a smile on her face and the ladder a face of distrust. Both faces, though, were directed towards me.
"Good you're awake. I don't have to pull the grumpy old man out of bed," Good to know Arthur knew when to be 'funny' and when to be serious. In contrast with her behavior yesterday, Arthur was now in a more joyful mood and looked more ready to do a stand-up act then go into battle. If it wasn't for how well she treated her situation yesterday, I would have said she's naive.
"You haven't seen me grumpy," My reply was both made to a joke and a truthful statement. Last time I woke up grumpy was when I found two new bullet holes in my head. And that ended up with my finishing a large scale war.
"I'm sure," Arthur said back, grading onto my shoulder as I finally came near the two. If she was anyone else, I would have broken her arm for that. "Today we have a job to do. So, as our new companion, you're coming with us. Get ready cause we leave now," Arthur turned towards the exit knowing I'll follow her. If this what Boone and the others had to go through with me, then they earn even more of my respect. Unlike many of my other missions, it was me who had to follow someone and not the other way around. It felt degrading.
"If I may ask? What is this mission about?" We have been walking a good few miles when only now I decided to ask what the job was about. Not the smartest move on my part but I have a lot on my mind. One of which was the landscape of Skyrim. Which prove to be heavily mountainous with only a handful of areas that allowed for straight forward travel. We had gone off the main roads more than once to get to where we were going.
"One of the Battle-Borns were kidnap. So, the family asked for the Companions help in rescuing him,"Arthur explained. So, I'm guessing these Battle-Borns are one of the rich families in Whiterun, the city I'm currently staying in. Isn't the first time I'm helping a rich family get back their son but I'm reckoning, this time, there'll be fewer cannibals.
We were finally coming to a stop as I look up at the monument just up the road. The place was massive with it covering most of the mountain it was shooting out of. Stone arches filled the area all the way towards the monuments entrance with stone floors and stairs covering the ground. The place looked almost like a large church similar to the ones I found in my travels and in old world books. It would appear, though, I was the only one taken back by the size of this place. As both Arthur and Lydia began looking over their weapons.
"This the place?" I asked no one in particular, still memorize by the size of this structure in the middle of nowhere. Who would even build something like this outside of populated areas? I severely doubt it was built this far out just to make the mountain look nice.
"It is. So, get your weapons out and ready," Lydia replied annoyed by my question. In hindsight, is was obvious. We had stopped near it and there weren't any other structures, that I could see, by us. Though, why someone would keep a kidnap kid in, what I was sure, an important structure like this. I didn't know. "Stop gawking. We have a job to do," Lydia was now clearly overly annoyed with me. Normally I wouldn't be acting this way but this world was a whole new place for me. It shouldn't a surprise if I get lost in it.
"Remember Lydia. Our friend here is new to Skyrim and her ruins. So, don't be quick to judge if he's still wary of it all," Lydia giggled at Arthur's comment well I became surprised by the fact they consider this a ruin. If this was my world it would have easily become the home of some raiders or a settlement. Either way, though, I was back on the job. Gawking was over and a fight was coming.
We got to an elevated position overlooking the way towards the entrance. The way forward was clear but the absent of noise made it all too suspicious. We started walking forward towards some stone stairs that would bring us to the ruins entrance. No danger had shown itself until we heard a man screaming at us. "I'm sorry! I don't what to do this!" A man ran down the stairs at us with a sword in his hand. Though, I'm not sure if he was a man. His body was see through and was glowing blue as if he was a spirit of some kind. I was told this world had magic in it and I'm sure this would be my first time experiencing it.
Before either Arthur or Lydia could act. I drew my own sword from its holster and meet the ghostly man running at me. My sword was a katana, a gift I received from an old friend who was lost to time. I knew well that I only had so much ammunition I could use before I ran out. So, getting up close and personal like this would be how I'll handle most fight's unless the situation called for it. This was clearly not one of those situations. Cause before the ghostly man even got a swing in. I cut him down with little effort. Afterward, he turned into blue glowing ash confusing me to no end. Normally, people turned to ash if I set them on fire and not from my sword.
"Let's keep going," Arthur said as she and Lydia walked passed me. Looks like answers will come later, cause now I just followed the two up the stairs. When we got up the stairs I looked up ahead to see large steel doors that would our entry way into the ruins. I also saw more of those ghostly men as I also noticed they all had the same face. Again I was confused by what was in front of me. These ghost men seem to be copied from the same person and luckily for us they were all easy to kill.
Once we were clear, we walked over to the steel doors and stopped just in front of it. "Ok, before we go in let's form a plan," Arthur said, acting like she already had a plan. "Any of you got one?" Turn out she didn't. Lydia wasn't coming up with anything so it looks like I'll need to make one.
"This isn't my first kidnapping. So, be quiet and listen up cause I'm only going to say it once," I yelled at the two girls getting their now full attention. "Once we head in, I'll take point. You two stay close behind me. We stay quiet and move room by room until we find the target. Once we do, I want both of you to wait for me until you do anything else. Is that clear?"As I told the girls my plan, I started putting a silencer on both of my m1911 pistols. I then looked at the two girls to see that they understood my plan as they nodded their heads. "Good. Let's go."
Stealth wasn't how Lydia and I normally did things but I was willing to see how Scott's plan turned out. He was clearly the more experienced fighter here. So, doing what he said made sense. I had my own plan to rescue the Battle-Born son but it involved more running right in there and killing the kidnappers as quickly as possible before they were able to act. I don't know how many there are but I'm sure Lydia and I would have killed them quickly. Scott had said he'd dealt with kidnappings before there for we let him lead the job.
Scott opened the doors before us and lead the way into the old ruins. As I closed the doors behind us, I turned back around to see something that memorized me to no end. The entrance had a garden covering its floor. I say garden well, in reality, it looked more like overgrowing weeds and bushes. The walls and ceiling were made out of old stone with the ceiling also being made out of some glass that allowed the sun's light to brighten the room. Because of that, the entrance had an alluring glow of green mist that made up most of the light filling the main entrance.
It would seem I wasn't the only one taking in the beauty of the room. Both Scott and Lydia had stopped to enjoy it as well. It wasn't long, though, until we ended the small break and continue on with the mission. The whole time staying quite liked Scott had told us. As we went deeper into the ruin, strangle, the colors of green and blue continued to light up like mist most of the rooms and hallways we passed through. This time, though, we didn't have the glass ceiling to ex[plain this. Whatever was causing this strange anomaly was coming from further inside the ruins. So, we continued on. Only stopping here and there to kill off some of the ghost men and to loot any treasures we came across.
"My Thane isn't it disrespectful to rob the dead?" Lydia asked me as I collect some gold out of an old urn. Ruins like these were notorious for being the resting places for many of Skyrim's departed. That means finding these people's richest wasn't going to be any surprise.
"Lydia, I told you many times before. The dead don't care if their richest of their old life are taken by another. If anything, they should be happy they're helping another by leaving them out for us to take," Though, I told Lydia this many time. She was still uncomfortable with me taken gold from the deceased. I couldn't really blame her cause, in the end, it was just grave robbing. That fact hasn't bothered me once, though. After all, if I learned anything from my family is that gold was precious and should be exploded whenever it can.
"She's right you know. Dead don't care much for the living. After all, they're dead," Scott explained his thought, as he to collect gold from an urn. It would seem me and this old man had something in common. We both can't leave good loot alone.
"Get, two grave robbers," I heard Lydia say under her breath. I decided not to make a come back because the joke was both funny and true.
We continued onward until we came upon a large room. There were more stairs that lead downward in the room's center floor with chandeliers that still had candles burning. Torches were bolted to the walls lighting up the rooms corners as the strange glowing green mist light up the rest of the room. At the far end of the room was a large chest with a Word Wall right behind.
"My lucky day," I ran towards the Word Wall ignoring the protest from Scott. Word Walls were important and could allow me to further develop my shouts. So, with little care of anything else around me. I took my chance to hopefully learn a new shout. Not seeing the clear laid trap below my feet as I ran across it. Right away the trap was sprung and I fell through the floor into the water below me. I looked up only to see the floor close back up darkening the new room I was in.
I heard laughter when I looked back down to see who it was coming from. It didn't take long because right outside the cage I was now in, was a man in black rods laughing out of superiority. "You fell right into my trap," The man laughed more as the reality of my situation came to me. I had become one of the most humiliating things I could think of. A prisoner.
This was going to be finished earlier this week but what can you do. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and please leave a review telling me what you think. Until next time.
Fallout and Skyrim are owned by Bethesda Studios.