Chapter 74: Swindler's Den
[30th of Evening Star 4E 201]
Janina, Fiona, myself and our housecarls had decided to help out Saadia, who was pursued by Alik'r warriors, and on our way to Swindler's Den we had first stopped at Dustman՚s Cairn, where Fiona had learned the 'YOL' shout from a word wall. We had followed the 'Headless Huntsman north to Hamvir՚s Rest, defeated the draugr and skeletons there and found a few books but not much else in a chest. From there we had traveled west and stopped for the night close to a dragon mound north of a mountain in the plains, and in the wee hours of the morning Alduin had arrived to resurrect the dormant dragon in there. Alduin had left to allow the resurrected dragon to kill us, but the youngling had underestimated us, and with combined forces we had prevailed; after all, we had the Dragonborn with us. After rest and healing we had proceeded west and had captured the guards outside of Swindler's Den, and just before we prepared to enter the cave we could see a group of people approaching from the south. When they came closer, I recognized some of the Companions. More to myself than to the others I mused:
"Sieh an, wir bekommen Gesellschaft."
{"Look at that, we are getting company"}
Janina was close to me and must have heard that, and to my utter surprise she replied:
"Ja, sieht so aus!"
{"Yes, looks like that"}
What? I turned around and asked her:
"I did not know that you speak my native language!"
"I did not know either when I talked to Fiona a few times and realized that I do. Don't ask me how and why; I do not remember anybody in Hammerfell speaking it. Must be something from my childhood, from the time I don't remember anything about."
This was intriguing, but there was no time to ponder it any further, as the new arrivals were now with us; I recognized Vilkas, Aela, Njada, and Athis. They had not expected company, and we quickly explained about our goal to apprehend Kematu and his cronies. The Companions did not know about that, but they had heard rumors about the Silver Hand hiding here and another piece of Wuuthrad which could be found in the cave, and they were honor-bound to check it out, as they called it. So, we had Kematu and his warriors, some bandits, and some Silver Hand to expect inside, in unknown numbers; quite a force, and they had probably prepared the cave with some ambush, traps and other surprises. We had to assume that they had deliberately spread some rumors and that they were expecting some of us to come here, potentially even in force.
"So, do we know who is in charge here? Are they able to make some crafty plans or do they just think they can overwhelm anybody with force?"
Janina took that one:
"Based on what I heard from Saadia, that Kematu guy is quite an intelligent and sneaky person; I'd assume that he is in charge and that there is more than pure numbers in there; I'd expect some carefully hidden traps at least."
"Does anybody know a back door in?"
There was no answer, and thus I suggested:
"I can always send my familiar ahead to find traps; I don't know if she will trigger any, due to lack of weight, but maybe Spirit will help to identify them at least."
We decided that Lydia and Jordis were going to stay outside, both to guard the prisoners and to watch for potential surprises, and the rest of us were going to enter the cave. Even without the two housecarls we had the four Companions, Fiona with Rayya, Janina, and me with Antonius; that should be good enough.
Once we had agreed on the plan, we opened the wooden door and stepped into the cave; right after the entrance I conjured my ghost saber cat and urged her to walk ahead of me, while I had my two real saber cat cubs walk at my side; the others kept behind me. And indeed, barely ten meters or so away from the entrance, Spirit stopped and sniffed, and when I looked closer I noticed a string or wire across the path. This smelled like a trap, and indeed, the string was connected to something nasty almost fully hidden in the ceiling. We did not have torches lighted for stealth, and most of us would not have seen the trap in the very dim light in here. Except for occasional rays of light from gaps in the ceiling and some glowing mushrooms, the path was dark. I assumed that we, that is those who were expected to provide news on Saadia/Iman, had been supposed to be guided inside by one of the guards outside, and that guard would have circumvented the traps; maybe there was a hidden side passage we had missed. With the Companions on our side, the option to pretend that we just wanted to talk to Kematu was no longer doable, though, and we'd have to be very careful.
Once we had safely passed this trap without triggering it, we followed the narrow passage without further incident, and after a few turns it opened up into a larger room. The room was illuminated by some torches on the walls and a campfire on the ground, and there were two people sitting at it and eating. Somehow this looked too easy; while bandits themselves were mostly not very smart, I would not be surprised at all to find some nasty ambush around, like hidden archers on a ledge or so. Was there a ledge or balcony or something like that? The light made it difficult to see that, but it was a possibility at least. How to find out?
Vilkas and Athis, both wearing heavy armor, decided to risk it, and they just stepped out of the passage and quickly approached the campfire with the two bandits. Their reaction was different from what he had expected, though; while one of them pulled a greatsword, the other jumped to the side and pulled a chain on the wall which we had not seen before; a hidden door opened, and a group of more bandits came out, likely Silver Hand judged by their weapons. Naturally, the rest of us also entered the cavern to engage, and all of a sudden we got arrows buzzing around us as well. So, there had been two surprises – the Silver Hand bandits hiding behind the secret door and the archers on some kind of ledge or balcony.
Fortunately, with all of us moving a lot, the archers had trouble hitting their targets, and in addition Aela had retreated back to find a spot to see them, and she started to lose arrows as well. My three saber cat girls, the two real ones and the ghost one, managed to jump and climb, and eventually they made it up to the balustrade with the archers; from that time on the arrow threat was mostly gone. Down here we were surprised by the number of enemies, as we had about a dozen Silver Hand and other bandits against us. Companions, though, were trained to fight against overwhelming numbers, and Antonius operated his bow from the background as well as Aela did. In addition, the Silver Hand only used their swords, whereas Fiona and I also attacked with shock spells. Making a bandit twitch after a shock spell hit made a perfect target for Janina and Rayya to finish them off with their scimitars. Vilkas was there up front, and while he had to be careful to avoid hits from silver weapons, his armor protected him from most attacks almost perfectly; the swords, silver or not, could not penetrate his Skyforge steel wolf armor, while his Skyforge steel greatsword easily penetrated the leather or hide armor most of the bandits wore. Eventually all of the bandits and Silver Hand warriors were down; none of them had even tried to surrender, but none had managed to flee and alert anybody else either. Njada and Athis had each received an injury from a silver weapon, but as none of them was a werewolf, that did not matter much, and healing was done quickly. Vilkas' high quality armor and his superior fighting style had protected him from any injuries, as it seemed.
Now we could proceed, and the way forward offered itself though the door which had been hidden until the bandits had come out. For some time we were able to proceed without any obstacles, and once we passed through a large storeroom with many barrels, chests and shelves; we might want to have a closer look once we had met Kematu. After a few more turns and stairs we had to walk through a partially submerged passage, with the water reaching up to our hips, and a waterfall covered the end. This was where, if my memory from the game served me right, Kematu and his cronies would likely wait for us, and in order to allow a peaceful conversation, it might be a good idea to not show up in force right away. We retreated and discussed how to proceed, and eventually we decided that I'd meet Kematu with Antonius and Janina, while the others would wait and watch.
Cautiously and slowly Antonius, Janina and I proceeded and stepped out from behind the waterfall, and indeed, some Redguard warriors were waiting for us. Not only was there a person who looked to be in charge right ahead, but at least four warriors with drawn scimitars were next to him, and I thought that I could also see a few archers around; apparently they expected trouble. The person in charge turned back for a moment and called out:
"Alik'r, hold!"
When he faces us again, he told us:
"You've proven your strength, warriors. Let's avoid any more bloodshed; I think you and I have some things to talk about."
Obviously he assumed that we were here to talk about Saadia, and this was at least partially correct. I nodded and replied:
"That we do, indeed, and it is always a good idea to talk first rather than getting into a fight prematurely."
"So, stay your hand, warriors! It's no secret why you're here, and you have proven your skill in combat, just by making it here. Let us talk a moment, and no one else needs to die. I think we can all profit from the situation in which we find ourselves. My men will not attack you, if you lower your weapons."
Our weapons were sheathed, and we started to talk about Saadia. Kematu՚s story was this:
"She is not who she claims to be; she sold the city out to the Aldmeri Dominion. Were it not for her betrayal, the city Taneth could have held its ground in the war. The other noble houses discovered her betrayal and she fled. They want her brought back alive for a trial. The resistance against the Dominion is alive and well in Hammerfell, and they want justice. You understand this, don't you?"
"I understand you, but I do not believe you. See, Saadia՚s story is very different from yours. She is pursued by you because she uncovered a plot in favor of the Thalmor, and you are all nothing else but paid assassins, hired by those supporting the Thalmor or even the Thalmor themselves."
"Assassins? No, nothing so crass. 'Saadia', as you know her, is wanted by the noble houses of Taneth for treason. We were hired to see her returned to Hammerfell for her crimes. You can help us with that, and make sure no one else gets hurt."
"So, what would you have me do?"
"She trusts you, at least to some extent. She sent you after us, and has no reason to think that you'd do anything other than that. Convince her that we'll be coming for her, and she needs to leave. Lead her to the stables outside Whiterun. We'll be waiting to take her into custody. I'll gladly share a portion of the bounty in return for your efforts in seeing proper justice done."
"Well, you have a very convincing way of talking, so that I might almost believe you, but I have met people who know better. Sadly you are indeed assassins and liars, and we have come to arrest you."
"I had hoped we could work something out, that you would see reason. That we could avoid having to kill you. Very well, then. If that's the way you want to play it, we will."
The Alik'r warriors got their weapons out again, and Kematu stepped aside and pulled a chain, which resulted in a noise behind us. Turning around I saw that a wooden barrier had been lowered behind us, cutting us off from our companions.
Looking around quickly I noticed some kind of alcove with good cover in a corner, and I managed to point it out to my two housecarls. Kematu spoke again:
"You don't think that I had not noticed that more warriors are waiting behind you, do you? They'll have to wait until it's their turn, I'm afraid. This is your last chance. Come out of the water without your weapons or be killed right away!"
The archers started to raise their bows; I signaled to my companions, and before the Redguard warriors realized what happened, we rushed up, out of the shallow water and into the alcove I had seen. Only once we had found cover there we heard the first arrows hitting the stone around us, but they were not easily able to reach us in here.
"This will not help you at all!" Kematu screamed. "You are outnumbered, and your friends will not be able to come in to help you!"
At the same time we heard a shout from behind the waterfall: 'FUS RO'. Apparently Fiona tried to remove the wooden barrier, and within seconds Vilkas and Athis showed up; in their heavy armor they were reasonably well protected from arrows, and they did not waste time and attacked the Alik'r right away. I had left Hanni and Nanni with them, and they were now around distracting the enemies, soon joined by Spirit. With the archers no longer focused on us, Antonius started to work his bow and I used my crossbow, so that we could deal quite some damage as well, while Janina was covering us. For now, Fiona kept back, but Njada and Rayya showed up and got involved as well, so that the balance quickly turned in our favor, specifically once arrows came out from behind the waterfall; apparently Aela was standing there, as all of them hit their target.
The Alik'r tried and failed to score hits on the heavily armored Companions, whereas the Redguard warriors' armor was not sturdy enough to protect the bandits from being hit by their swords. Once again I saw the benefit of heavy armor, and although the armor made by Eorlund was not ebony or Stalhrim or something like that, it was apparently good enough to protect from the weapons used here; a real high quality sword might be able to cut through it, though, and exactly this happened when Athis faced Kematu – the Alik'r chief's sword managed to cleave through Athis' armor and hurt him, so that the elf was out of the fight for now. Njada used the opportunity to rush to Athis, pull him back, and feed him a couple of health potions, and meanwhile we had more or less decided the fight in our favor. Kematu and one of his cronies were the only bandits still fighting, while the others were either dead or had surrendered. Neither Kematu nor the other warrior yielded, and they were cut down by two of their own race, Rayya and Janina.
Surprisingly, we had managed to win this fight without casualties, but we had a few wounded. Athis' injury was bad, but the health potions worked, Rayya had a few cuts on her, and of course I had managed to catch a couple of arrows on my arm when aiming my crossbow from the alcove. The armor I wore had protected me from bad injuries and the arrows had been slowed down at least, but even the improved armor Doria had made for me did not fully keep me save from high quality arrows hitting me from a close distance. Maybe I should ask Adrianne and Doria again if there was a chance for further improvements, or maybe somebody might be able to help by adding proper enchantments. This was a topic I had not looked into at all so far, except for using the enchanted glass axe Jarl Balgruuf had given me with my Thaneship.
While I took care of our wounded, the others looked around and carefully searched for traps and potential other surprises; they also made sure that the bandits who looked dead were actually dead; we did not want to have one of them just pretending and jumping up later on to kill one of us. In addition, they also looked for ways out of this area; we assumed that there was another passage, and this was indeed found soon. Vilkas and Aela also explored that new passage, and when they came back some time later, they reported that it branched off inside, with one part leading to the storeroom and another one directly to the first big room where we had encountered our first big fight. They had had a quick look at the storeroom and opened some of the unlocked chests, and if that was any indication, there was quite some value stored there. Kematu and his Alik'r had not known where to find Saadia, and they had been busy asking around in the cities and towns for weeks at least; while there had been signs pointing to Whiterun hold, they did not have any details. Apparently they had used the opportunity to build a network and ally with bandits and Silver Hand, and while we did not know if some of the loot had been here before, they had managed to collected a lot; we had to assume that it was mostly stolen. In addition, there were also many septims, and maybe Kematu actually paid the bandits for some services, like guarding the place. Now, what to do with all of that? I asked my friends about it and got different opinions:
"Technically, as all of that is stolen and we claimed it, we can take what we want" Aela stated.
"Yes, but there might be some merchandise actually belonging to some people" Janina objected.
"As Companions, we always try to return stolen things if we can" Vilkas insisted.
"But how would you get all of that stuff out of here? We can't carry all of it!" Fiona chimed in.
"No, we sure can't, but can we get a few carts here?" Janina suggested.
"This place is too far from any road!" Rayya cut in.
"Not exactly" Antonius now offered. "From the south, there's a little dirt road starting south of 'Broken Fang Cave', branching off from the main road between Whiterun and Rorikstead, passing the cave, and leading north towards a Shrine of Zenithar and further north from there. It does not fully extend to this place, but I believe that the path can be managed by carts, with some extra effort."
"I think that this is correct" Aela agreed. "The right thing to do is to inform the Jarl or the steward and have some carts sent here, to carry off all of the goodies. They can sort out later how to distribute it. We will get a fair share for sure."
"But that implies that some of us should stay to guard the wares, right?" Fiona asked.
"Good point, lady, you're right about that. Some of us need to stay here, and the others take the prisoners to Whiterun and get carts organized for the loot. Lydia and Antonius should go with them to lead the way." Vilkas confirmed. I agreed with his suggestion. We had three captured bandits from outside plus two Alik'r who had been injured, and getting them to the Dragonsreach dungeons without delay would be a good idea.
Once we had Lydia and Jordis with the three additional captives in here with us, we discussed our options, and we found an agreement with Fiona, Janina, Rayya, Jordis, Athis, Aela and me staying, while the others – Antonius, Lydia, Njada and Vilkas – were going to herd the captured bandits to Whiterun. Fiona claimed that she needed some rest and would only slow down the others, Athis was still recovering, and our housecarls claimed that at least one of them needed to stay with their respective Thanes. So, that was settled, and a few minutes later the others were already leaving. Dusk was already close, but they did not mind, and they'd walk through the night. They were all tough warriors and used to rough it, and I really hoped to see them again soon, ideally with some carts.
[Author's Notes: Why can Janina understand and speak German? This will be revealed in the second story of the series, which may eventually become a trilogy.
On a side note, I have been unhappy about the issue on the site breaking the monthly traffic stats; maybe some of my readers could write a quick review to cheer me up?]
