Chapter 72: Hamvir's Rest

[28th29thof Evening Star 4E 201]

The last few days, 24th to 26th of Evening Star – December – had been the Christmas holidays in my old life, and naturally, as I was a believing Christian, they still had a special meaning for me, even here in Skyrim. I had learned that Bretons called those days 'Saturalia', and we had celebrated the holidays together in Jorrvaskr, even though most Companions did not share the background.

Janina had told me a part of Saadia՚s story and the bad people who had somehow almost found the Redguard who worked as a barmaid in the Bannered Mare, and both Fiona and I had decided to do something about it. We had learned that the Alik'r bandits were hiding in a place called Swindler's Den, but first we planned to visit another location before getting there. Together with our housecarls and my saber cats we left on the next day, and as Fiona was with us, we did not walk too quickly. When we passed the stables, she mused:

"One of those days I may consider buying a horse. It's a lot of money, but I learned to ride as a little girl, and all of that walking is nothing I like too much."

I understood her, but with frequent dungeon delving and all I would not want to have to worry about a horse waiting outside all on its own; a dragon might attack horses while we were inside, bandits might steal them, or we might just leave a dungeon through a back door in another location. A horse like Vilja՚s Bruse or the ghost horse from the Soul Cairn, summonable with a magical horn or similar, might be useful, though, but horses like those were not for sale at stables as far as I knew. Besides, I had learned that horses did not like my predator smell, and in addition to that, I was not a good rider at all. So, for today, we walked, but we took our time. Close to the Western Watchtower a squall of rain came down, but we could hide and wait in the tower for half an hour and chat with some of the guards until the rain had passed again. The soldiers here did not have much to do except for looking around and such, and they were grateful for some diversion. Then we moved on and soon turned north, following the road all of the time. While we walked, Fiona was having a very long talk with Janina, and I assumed that they had a discussion about Saadia and the Alik'r. Without significant trouble we arrived at our first target location, Dustman's Cairn, in mid afternoon, and I said:

"Now, in there we need to be careful. When I was inside some time ago, we met both human enemies and draugr, and I can't tell how many of them might be in there today."

Antonius stepped forward, looked at his three fellow housecarls, and said:

"Ladies, what about showing the local fiends and undead what four capable housecarls can do? Are you with me?"

Naturally, Lydia, Rayya and Jordis were ready for the challenge, and once Fiona and I had nodded and approved, they took the lead. The first part of the cairn was practically deserted, and only later on we encountered the occasional single draugr and skeever. The Silver Hand people, who had been there earlier, during my Companion trial, had apparently abandoned the place, and quicker than I had anticipated we got into the big final room in the crypt. I still had the key from my earlier encounter and thus could unlock the door leading into the crypt, and there we were. It still looked very much like I had seen it before, when I had been here with Farkas, but the many bones and draugr corpses were all gone; the various coffins and niches looked 'reset', and I had to assume that there were again evil beings waiting for us under stone cover. A section of my mind wanted to understand how it was possible that draugr and other evil creatures were able to clean up and populate the area again after some time had passed, but I tried to push those thoughts away, for now at least. This was a world of magic, and there was probably now way I could understand all of that from a technical and scientific point of view. Fortunately, Fiona distracted me from my musings by asking:

"So, does this work like Bleak Falls Barrow? Like, when I get close to the word wall, a nasty draugr wakes up?"

"Similar, I guess. Just like here, there will be many draugr, like a dozen or so; at least, if this works like when I was here for the first time."

"Are we up to that?"

Rayya took this and proudly stated: "We are, my Thane! Bring it on!"

It almost looked like they considered that as some kind of competition. However, I wanted to find out if there was a way to force a lurking draugr out of their coffins or niches prematurely, and I asked around if anybody knew if that was somehow possible; in the game, I had not managed to do something like this. Only Janina had a suggestion:

"I haven't had a chance to find out if this actually works, but I have heard from a traveling wizard in High Rock that a fire rune, if placed very close to such a burial niche, forces a resting draugr to emerge. Apparently, even behind the stone barrier and without moving, the draugr triggers the rune."

"All right, and does anybody know how to set such a rune?"

"Actually, yes, I can do this" the pretty Redguard replied. "Placing runes was part of my magical training; I can set basic fire, frost and shock runes. Let me do this!"

I had to admit that I was impressed, and Janina stepped ahead and followed me up the stairs to a ledge with a single coffin like stone structure. Rayya followed and got ready, and Janina summoned her magic and cast the rune right next to the structure. A moment later a draugr emerged, and it was already on fire. Before it even had a chance to start fighting, it was hit by Rayya and dropped down to the ground. This was great, and I had not known that this was possible. Had that been an option in the game and I had missed it? Possibly yes. We successfully repeated the procedure with another hidden draugr, but it failed when we tried to apply it to a third one. However, we had at least two draugr less to fight now. When everybody was ready, I told my housecarl:

"Get your bow ready when Fiona gets close to the word wall."

I took my crossbow and waved to the Bosmer, and she walked across the room. This time, though, the activation sequence was different for some reason, and most of the wall niches got alive all of a sudden when Fiona was close to the center of the room. She yelped and started running, and while the three warrior ladies engaged in combat below, Antonius and I released bolts and arrows, in particular making sure that none of the draugr could come close to the Dragonborn.

That worked fine for some time and we were able to cut down the number of draugr quickly, until suddenly there was movement from a niche further back in the room, not far from the world wall; another stone plate dropped, and a very nasty looking draugr emerged; it was closer to Fiona than I liked. The Dragonborn was kneeling and obviously just absorbing a new shout, and I hit the latest draugr in the chest with a bolt, but that did not stop it. Rather, the undead turned around and shouted something which sounded like 'ZUN HAAL VIIK' at me which made me drop the crossbow. I almost cursed, and the draugr turned again to approach the Bosmer. Rayya and Janina suddenly became aware of the situation, and they both rushed forward to attack the draugr with their scimitars, so that it had four of those weapons getting down on its body all of a sudden. Nonetheless it proceeded, though very slowly, and the weapons seemed to do little damage. Antonius hit with two more arrows, but all of our effort only slowed down the draugr՚s progress, but failed to stop it. When it was finally just a couple of meters from Fiona and already raised a big enchanted looking axe, the Bosmer rose, faced the undead and opened her mouth wide:

'YOL!'

Rayya and Janina were quick enough to jump back and probably only got a few light burns, but the boss draugr got the full heat into its body. Amazingly, it still was not dead (again), but a final bolt from my crossbow, which I had been able to pick up again, together with yet another arrow from Antonius' bow made the difference, and the undead sank to the ground.

"Wow," Fiona said, "that is cool!"

What a difference between the petite Bosmer today and her behavior in Helgen; she had really changed and grown, not by body size, but in coolness, courage, and self control. She would need that for later quests, too. I teased her anyway:

"Cool, you say? Well, this looked rather hot to me!"

For a few seconds she just looked at me, and she started to laugh, and Janina and I laughed with her, while three of our housecarls at least tried to stay composed, although I could see twitching face muscles at least on Lydia and Jordis. Antonius, who knew well by now that it was all right to laugh and have fun with me, laughed about as much as I did.

"You know," Fiona replied, "you may be actually right about that. Hot! I wonder how it might be to learn the second and third word of that shout. There is a second and third word, right?"

"Yes, there is, at least as far as I know, and you will come across an opportunity to learn them, too, sooner or later."

"Good. I am glad that I learned a real good shout here and that I had a dragon soul ready to activate it. Now, are we done here?"

"Almost. We should take a few minutes to search the dead draugr and see what we can find. If they have any septims and gems on them, we can make better use of those, right?"

Of course, in addition to looting, we needed to check for injuries. Rayya and Janina had some minor burns from Fiona's shouts, and Hanni and Nanni had some small frost spikes in them from some draugr; all of those were quickly healed, and once again I was thankful for the magic and potions which allowed to heal even grave injuries without any lasting damage.

Rayya looked at the other Redguard woman and told her:

"Your fighting style is quite like mine, and you have been superbly trained, as I can see; I like that."

"Yes, the master armorer in the city back home in Hammerfell recognized my potential early on, and he has driven me to where I currently am; I am grateful for his patience with me, although it has not always been easy. I have to admit that I enjoy fighting at your side, too."

We also checked the area for loot, and while there wasn't very much around, I found a spell tome for 'Candle Light'. Normally I would not need something like this, as my Khajiit eyes needed less light than human eyes, but one never knew, and thus I read the tome and got those of my companions who wanted to learn it a chance as well. Fortunately, learning that particular novice level spell did not take long for me, and I only needed a few minutes of practice until I could create a tiny magical light like with a snip of my fingers. The light was really tiny, barely as much as the light a normal candle provided, and it only lasted for a minute or so, but at least I managed.

Considering that the sun was about to set, we decided to make camp, and we found a nice spot half way between Dustman՚s Cairn and the road. Despite having Hanni and Nanni with us, there was a joint decision to post guards, and our four housecarls shared that duty, so that each of them would be on duty for about two and a half hours. After some supper and talking around the campfire in the darkness, we slept well, and according to my habit, I woke before sunrise. Lydia had the watch, and I saw her standing and looking at something. Following her line of sight I noticed a strange apparition down on the road, clearly visible from our elevated position. Illuminated by Masser, there was a ghostly rider without a head, sitting on an also ghostly horse. Rider and horse stood still for a few minutes, and then they slowly headed north, towards Hamvir՚s Rest, until they were out of our sight.

"Strange thing" Lydia whispered. "I have seen this ghost before, but it never harms anybody. People claim that it can be seen even during daylight at some time right at Hamvir՚s Rest, not doing anything at all, just being there. I am sure that there is a mystery connected with the ghost, but I don't know what that might be."

During breakfast later on we told the others about what we had seen, and there was an agreement to make a detour north to see if the ghost was still there. We were not far from this place anyway, and Lydia assured us that we'd get there in less than one hour. And indeed, her estimation was quite correct. Less than one hour later we saw the structure ahead, with some low stone walls and structures nestled into a steep rock wall, with a few isolated trees finding tiny amounts of soil to grow on. The stone walls had three major gaps, and the left and the right one were blocked by iron gates, whereas the large center gap had a large sarcophagus erected in a niche. The wide open area between us and the structure was littered with small gravestones, and various stone pillars decorated the borders. The area had some dark bushes around as well, but no flowers, except for some nightshade plants, and it was also devoid of birds, butterflies, or any other living beings. The headless horseman was there, too, right in front of us, even in daylight, and it seemed to wait for us, for whatever reason.

We stopped at some distance to the place, and I looked at my companions:

"So, does this look like a trap or so?"

"I would not be surprised to see skeletons rising from the graves if we come closer" Lydia suggested.

"And the coffin over there smells like an ugly draugr" Antonius added.

"Any idea what the horseman would like us to do?" I asked.

Nobody had an answer to that. The ghost was just there, almost completely without movement, and it was turned directly towards the center of the square where the big sarcophagus was.

"Does anybody know if somebody has ever investigated that place in detail?"

Lydia and Antonius both shook their heads, but Rayya did not agree:

"I have heard about a couple of adventurers who dared to approach the chest over there, the one behind the bars in the left niche, and they barely escaped with their life. We need to be careful."

With the motionless horseman not giving any hints, I decided to go ahead, and I asked my companions to form some kind of semi-circle around the place. Antonius and Fiona got their bows ready, and I slowly stepped forward. Nothing happened at first, until I was just a few steps from the coffin. I was almost ready to check out the chest, when the sarcophagus suddenly popped open, and, like some of us had expected, a draugr stepped out. Judged by its looks, this one was at least as dangerous as the one in Bleak Falls Barrow had been, and I stepped back immediately. When I heard an arrow whizzing behind me, I turned around for a moment, and I saw that maybe a dozen skeletons had risen from the graves in the open space. Hanni and Nanni got busy with those and in addition arrows found them, so that this was not a big problem. The draugr was, though; it had already raised a big cold looking sword, and I countered with my flames before the undead attacked. My cast only stopped the draugr for a few moments, but that was good enough to allow me a tactical retreat. I managed to turn around in time to see the undead starting a shout, and I dropped to the ground right away. A scary 'FUS RO DAH!' blasted just above my head, and despite my partial cover I was blown back a few meters. Fiona decided to counter the undead, stepped ahead and used her new shout on it: 'YOL'.

The effect was impressive, at least on the visual side, but the draugr was not impressed, at least not much. Some of the rags on its bones looked even worse than before, but the undead moved ahead in my direction. With most of the skeletons down now, Janina and Rayya ran forward, and they started a coordinated attack, like they had done in the cairn. Their scimitars whirled so quickly that I could not really follow them any longer, and the draugr was way too slow to evade or to counter-attack successfully. That worked reasonably well until the draugr opened its mouth again. The two Redguards reacted promptly, sheathed their scimitars, and dual-casted flames right onto the draugr head from close distance. The shout was never spoken, and the draugr even retreated a step or two. Within a second or so the scimitars were out again and the attack was resumed. When the draugr tried to shout once more, the flames from the two Redguard warrior ladies was supplemented by a quick 'YOL' from Fiona, and the combined firepower, literally, ended the fight; the draugr was done for and turned from undead into fully dead.

Janina and Rayya shook hands, and it was obvious that they had a lot of fun fighting as a team. All of the skeletons were down, too, thanks to my saber cat cubs, Antonius' arrows, and the effort from the others who had not been involved against the draugr. The horseman lifted an arm, like to salute, and vanished.

"Now what?" Fiona asked. "Are we done here?"

"No, we are not. Let's check the chest at least; we might be able to open it through the bars."

The content in the chest was disappointing. There was no loot at all, just a few books. The books had some kind of magical aura around them, though, and it almost appeared that they were destined for specific people, some of them at least. Without a conscious decision on our side, one book managed to find its way into Fiona's hands, one was grabbed by Janina, and I got a third one, without remembering how I actually took it.

Fiona opened her book first, and it turned out to be 'Fall from Glory', written by some 'Nithilis Lidari'. The book was about Riften and the Thieves Guild, and it ended like this:

Within the last few decades, their order has gone from one of the largest, most influential criminal organizations in all of Tamriel to a small group of stragglers barely able to wreak havoc in their home city of Riften.

The mystery of the Thieves Guild's fall from power needs to be solved once and for all as a matter of record and as a footnote to Skyrim՚s history.

This made sense to me. When the player joined the guild, they get told by various people that they had had bad luck for some time, and only the player's effort and the uncovering of evil schemes makes that change; been there, done that. It was very likely that the background here in the real Skyrim was similar to the one in the game.

Janina had a book called 'Of Crossed Daggers' by 'Dwennon Wyndell', and it seemed to fit her fighting style with the dual scimitars. The content, though, was also about Riften and its history, and when we had a quick look, we learned that the term 'Crossed Daggers' was a reference to a name rather than a fighting style:

In 4E 98, amidst the confusion of the Void Nights, Hosgunn Crossed-Daggers was installed as Jarl when the previous Jarl had been assassinated.

For over 40 years, Hosgunn ruled Riften with a black heart and an iron fist.

Then, in 4E 129, the people had finally had enough. With their numbers, they were able to temporarily overwhelm the city guard long enough to set Hosgunn's Folly on fire with the greedy Jarl still within.

Janina looked like she had received a hint, but she did not say anything about it. I wondered if there was a reason why both of them got a book about Riften.

My book was named 'Cats of Skyrim' by 'Aldetuile', and it actually dared to throw Khajiit and saber cats into the same category, which I did not like much. One line, though, was certainly true:

Sabrecats are basic giant cats that have evolved two dangerously sharp front teeth.

The snowy version of the sabrecat has spotted white fur...

Yep, and I certainly hoped that my two cubs would grow in that direction. My two, though, did not really have the spotted fur, but more like stripes on the dark white bodies, closer to a white tiger on Earth than a snow leopard or so; maybe this was a minor mutation. I turned the pages in my book and found something I had not expected; there was a single sheet of paper between the pages. The sheet did not seem to fit, and it looked like some kind of plan. It did not say for what, though, and the few words on the page were written in a language I did not know. As we had an important task on our hands now, I decided to have a closer look at some later time. The sun had not reached its zenith yet, so that we certainly could make some more progress today.

[Author's Notes: I have to admit that I only recently learned that one can actually lure a draugr out from their niche by placing a fire rune close to it; I had rarely used runes before.]