Chapter 75: Indiana Jones helps
[30th – 31st of Evening Star 4E 201]
After our arrival at Swindler's Den, we had been able to capture five bandits outside, and when four of the Companions had arrived on the scene, hoping to find a piece of Wuuthrad in there, we had joined forces. We had been able to find and defeat Kematu and the Silver Hand and other bandits he had allied with, and as we had found a huge amount of loot, likely mostly stolen merchandise, we had sent Vilkas, Njada, Antonius and Lydia back to Whiterun to organize a few carts; they had taken the bandits we had captured so far with them, to deliver them to the dungeon under Dragonsreach.
As soon as our friends were gone, Aela insisted to search the place carefully and see if we couldn't find the piece or pieces of Wuuthrad which were supposed to be here, according to rumors which likely had been spread deliberately by the Alik'r. I knew that searching for Wuuthrad fragments was something like a holy duty for the Companions and specifically the Circle members, and while I doubted that we'd find something, I offered to search with her while the others stayed behind for a rest; Jordis insisted to come with us, of course.
After hours of searching, we had not found anything, which didn't surprise me. We had either missed a hiding spot, or the rumor of Wuuthrad being here was actually nothing else but a rumor, or the fragment was in one of the locked containers. None of us three was good in lockpicking, and we had not found any keys for the many locked chests. However, I recalled that we had a person in our group who had some talent, and as we had located a large supply of lockpicks, Jordis was sent to get Fiona here. Ten minutes later Fiona and Rayya showed up and told us that Jordis was now with Athis. Fiona was shown to our lockpick supply, and she started to work. I was not really a good judge of such activities, and I had no idea if picking a specific lock in five minutes was good or not. Nonetheless, with about one hour Fiona managed to pick about a dozen locks, and all of the big chests were now unlocked and ready to be opened. We looked into all of them and found weapons, armor, jewelry, food, and other stuff, but no sign of Wuuthrad.
Aela was not ready to give up yet, and Athis joined us soon; he had recovered and wanted to help. He actually found something Aela had missed so far, which was a very well hidden lever. Before anybody could stop him, he pushed it, and some noise reverberated from behind one of the walls. A door we had not even noticed before opened, and a short passage was seen leading into a medium sized room; naturally, there was no light in there, but a couple of braziers were available, and once being lighted, they provided plenty of illumination. There was a big table in the center of the room, and on that table we could see some stuff.
"Wuuthrad!" Aela shouted. Without hesitation she took off, with Athis on her heels. I hesitated; in my opinion this smelled like a trap. When I had picked up a fragment of Wuuthrad in Dustman՚s Cairn, lots of draugr had woken up; I could not see places for hiding draugr around here, but I still did not like it and thus called out:
"Aela, Athis! Let's check for traps first!"
Aela did not listen; she was probably smart and experienced enough to suspect a trap, but maybe she assumed that we could handle draugr and any other menace easily. She picked up the piece from the table, and more rumbling was heard. Another stone door, just between the room and the passage, rose up and closed; I had been able to jump out as I had been right next to it, but the two Companions failed to follow me quickly enough, and now we could hear only their muted voices from inside.
"I guess that you were right about the trap" Fiona admitted, standing outside next to me. "But why are they so crazy about that Wu-something?"
"I can explain later, but let's see how we can help them now."
From a place above our heads we could hear the sound of flowing water, and it was not hard to imagine that the room was about to be flooded. This would certainly take some time, but unless we could find a way to help them, Aela and Athis were doomed; I did not think that the massive stone doors could be impacted by a dragon shout. Unfortunately I had no idea what to do, but Fiona suggested, addressing me:
"Have you ever seen Indiana Jones movies?"
"Yes, a few of them; why?"
"For traps like this one, there must be a way to disable them from outside, like if they get the wrong people trapped by accident."
"Good point, but how?"
"We need to search the walls for niches and some buttons or levers inside."
All of us obeyed, and we got started with that activity. Because of my size I took the upper regions, whereas Jordis and Fiona searched lower. After a few minutes of frantic searching I found a few niches. When I moved my paw inside the first one, I twitched for a moment when I touched something moving, and I had to overcome my initial aversion when I realized that small insects, like woodlice, were living in those holes. In the second hole I could feel a small lever, though, and I did not hesitate to push it over. Nothing happened, so that I suspected that this did not work, until Fiona pointed out:
"Look, there are also niches on the other side. Maybe there's another lever in there which needs to be shifted as well?"
She had a point. I tried the other side, too, and fond another lever, pushing it over as well. My effort was rewarded and the water flow above us was getting stopped, judged by the noise and some gurgling ahead; eventually, the massive stone door opening slowly. A huge surge of water started to come out from the enlarging gap, but most of it vanished through holes in the ground, maybe designed for just such a purpose. Aela and Athis were drenched, but they had survived at least. They looked relieved, but I did not get much time to enjoy the sight, as I was feeling dizzy all of a sudden; I told the others:
"I don't know, but I am not feeling well."
That was all I got to say before I had to sit down, and I felt like fainting; my mind started to wander, my vision narrowed, my ears start to ring, and...
Apparently I had really fainted. When I woke up I found myself on some kind of bed, and Fiona and Rayya were looking at me, showing concern on their faces. I was worried about what happened, and before I could ask, Antonius told me:
"You got poisoned, B'lushona. The Lady Dragonborn assumes that the levers you pushed to free the Companions were layered with a strong poison, and it was touch and go for a few minutes. I know where you keep your supplies in your backpack and fed you a 'cure poison' dose right away, but that only helped a little bit, at least at that time. Most of us are not good at healing magic at all, so that Fiona and I applied our restoration magic on you, and that did the trick. When we saw that you looked better and your heart rate had normalized, we all worked together to carry you here into the main living area; you were out for about two hours."
"I don't want to appear ungrateful, but I thought that restoration magic does not work well against poison?"
"That's what we thought, too, but maybe the Dragonborn magic is something special; we believe that she saved your life."
"Fiona, thank you."
The petite wood elf smiled at me and replied:
"I guess that this is the least I could do after you had saved my life numerous times. Now, I would like to ask for something. Aela and Athis have been quite eager to find this Wutra something fragment, and I believe not all of us, including myself, know what that exactly is. Does somebody care to explain, please?"
That seemed to be a justified request, and it would up up to Aela, the senior Companion member here, to decide what could be shared and what was on a need to know basis for Companions only. The warrior lady thought about that for a moment and then nodded:
"You are right, you should learn the background for that. While we cannot share all of the details, the history itself is publicly known, and there is no reason to keep it a secret. So listen up, everybody. In the Merethic Era, that is even before the First Era, Ysgramor started the conquest of Skyrim. He was said to come from Atmora and probably was a king there, and he and his five hundred Companions claimed parts of Skyrim for themselves, taking it from the Elves and the Giants. After his first attempt failed, a mighty battleaxe was forged from some special parts, supposedly including Ysgramor՚s tears which changed to ebony, and the weapon was called Wuuthrad, which means 'Storm's Tears'. With this axe he succeeded in his second attempt, and after his death, the axe grew to be a legend like Ysgramor himself."
"So, it's just a legend?"
"No, it's more than that; it's real. In the Second Era I believe, the axe was stolen from its hiding place, and during the process the weapon was shattered into many shards, twelve altogether as the stories tell. We and past generations of Companions have been able to collect most of them, but not all, and we hope that the legendary weapon can be reforged once all pieces are together again, enabling us to display Wuuthrad proudly in memory of Ysgramor. Since the founding of the Companions and the weapon's theft this task, the collection of fragments, has been some kind of holy duty for us, and while most rumors turn out to be false, we now have ten fragments in our possession, including the one we found today."
Silence prevailed for a long time, until Fiona asked:
"But, when Ysgramor arrived in Skyrim for the first time, wasn't he kind of an invader, and wasn't it justified to fight his forces?"
"Lady, we do not know. Some claim that he had to flee from Atmora and a Civil War there, and some historical scholars indeed insist that his initial attack was an invasion and unprovoked. Bad things sure happened on both sides, but nonetheless it is Ysgramor we consider our ancestor and idol, and he was a mighty warrior for sure. We cannot fully tell to what extent his deeds were right and just or maybe not, but we Companions living today sure have high moral standards, and each Harbinger is carefully selected not only for prowess in battle, but even more for having the right spirit, heart and mind. I am sure that Kodlak, our current Harbinger, has been thinking about a successor for his position for some time, but he won't tell until he thinks that the time is right."
I had not expected Aela to speak that much, and it had been quite interesting to listen. In particular I liked that she did not insist Ysgramor to be 100% right and all of his actions fully justified, but conceded that he might have done something wrong, too. The red-haired huntress concluded:
"There is a series of books called 'Songs of the Return', telling part of the story. Sadly, although the series is rumored to have many volumes, only few of them are known to us, and we don't know if more exist or not. Vilkas has a few of them in his possession, and he might allow you to read them if you ask nicely."
I recalled that Vilkas had actually already allowed me to read some of his books, and one of the volumes in the series had been about a smaller group of those Companions arriving at the Skyforge and founding Jorrvaskr.
This topic was exhausted now, and we used the opportunity for some rest. Aela and Athis had found what they had looked for, we had had another quick look at all of the wares which had been collected by the alliance of Alik'r, Silver Hand and bandits, and there was a very particular amulet which looked suspiciously like the one which had been stolen from Kharjo, based on the description he had given me when we had met in Riverwood. We retired to the rooms where the Alik'r had slept, and each of us found a nice bed. We did not bother to set up a night watch, as I was sure that Hanni and Nanni would alert us in case of trouble, and we did not have any captives with us any longer.
When I woke up, there was darkness around me. Not just night darkness, but real and total darkness. I recalled that we had gone to sleep in Swindler's Den, and of course there was total darkness around once all torches and other light sources had been extinguished; we had kept one torch lighted in a corner of the room when we got to sleep, but it had obviously burned out. In that kind of total darkness even my Khajiit night view was useless; it could not penetrate that total absence of light.
Some people might have been scared by waking up in total darkness in an unfamiliar environment, but I had been in some caves in my previous life, caves without public tours and no lights except for battery driven torches we had with us, and my friends and I had always switched off our torches for a few minutes at the deepest point. Here I did not have a battery driven torch next to me, but fortunately I had acquired and learned the spell 'Candle Light' from a spell tome I had found earlier, and I cast it now. The spell created a ball of light above my head, and while the light was not very bright, just barely like that from a single candle, it was more than good enough to see my surroundings. Hanni and Nanni were nowhere around; maybe they had gone out to hunt. Fortunately I felt perfectly well and healthy again; any lingering effects from the strong poisoning on the day before was gone, thanks to the effort my friends had spent on me. Back on Earth, a near lethal poisoning would have earned me a week or two in a hospital, potentially with my stomach getting drained, but here a few potions and spells were able to cure me within hours. I had been in Skyrim for a few months now, but I still marveled at that.
One by one the others started to stir as well, and I used the time to light a few torches and prepare breakfast. There was not much to do for that anyway; I just laid a table with the food we had, which was, thanks to some additional supplies we had found here, plenty. There were many apples, slices of cheese, some bread, but only little meat. I guess I'd have to go hunting today, maybe with Aela. It would take some time for Lydia and Antonius to get back with the carts, assuming they got any.
"No, hunting is not on my list right now" Aela said while chewing. "I need to go over the loot once more and see if we can somehow sort it before it is brought to Whiterun."
"That's all right" Jordis nodded, "I will gladly hunt with my Thane."
"You may be up for a surprise" Aela smiled. "His way of hunting is sometimes a little bit … unconventional."
"Oh yes, indeed, I have already had an opportunity to see that, and I will gladly watch again."
And indeed, she got to see something. Hanni and Nanni waited just outside of the cave, and they had found themselves a rabbit to feed from. Nonetheless they were more than happy to go hunting with me again, and as we were right in the Whiterun tundra, we did not have to go far. We'd have to feed a lot of people, and thus we went for a big stag. As we had done before a few times, my two saber cat cubs managed to separate a sizable animal from the herd and drove it in my direction. I had dropped my armor and most of my weapons and had been hiding behind a rock, and right when the scared stag wanted to pass, I jumped and brought it down, using only my paws and body. It struggled, and I used my dagger now to quickly end the animal's agony by cutting its throat; this was quicker than trying to use my teeth for that.
Jordis approached, and I could see that she was almost laughing, but did her best to suppress it, presumably because she was not supposed to laugh about her Thane. I probably looked odd, with only my loincloth, dagger in hand and blood on my fur, too. I encouraged her:
"Jordis, I am not the normal run of the mill Thane. Around me, laughing is all right, even and in particular when it's about me. Make you a deal: Laugh as much as you want now, and when you are done, you take over the skinning and meat preparing?"
"Deal!" she managed to agree before she allowed the laughter to get out, and within seconds she was almost literally rolling on the floor laughing. I had not quite expected that from Jordis; she had always appeared as the dedicated and serious housecarl so far, but quite obviously she had her funny moments, too. Anyway, there was as mall pool of water nearby, and I used it to clean myself, although the water was real cold; no surprise, it was winter after all. Fortunately I had learned to cast a low level flame spell on my own body to get me warm and dry again afterwards.
Athis came out to look around, and when he saw Jordis working on the dead stag, he started to help. I had to admit that I was quite happy that I did not have to do that; somehow that was a kind of work I felt uncomfortable with. In addition to that, skinning an animal properly to get the fur and some usable meat out required both effort and skill, and the latter I clearly did not have, although I could have someone teach me, I guessed. Getting nice pieces of meat from a freshly killed animal required much more than pressing a button on a keyboard, of course. For some time, I stayed outside and walked around slowly, enjoying the fresh air compared to the somewhat stuffy environment in the cave system.
Inside the cave again, Aela and Fiona had made a discovery. In the room with the trap, where the Wuuthrad fragment had been, there was a small niche behind a pillar, and a safe was built in there. According to Aela the safe had been painted to appear like part of the rock wall, and of course there was no key for it. Fiona had, as I got told, taken up the challenge, and thanks to a large supply of lockpicks she had accumulated, she had managed to pick the lock with significant effort and about a dozen broken lockpicks. In the safe they had found a large set of keys, which turned out to fit the various chests with the loot and merchandise, a few books and documents, and a large pile of septims. Some of those books hat meticulous listings of what had been stolen from whom and when, and this would make it much easier to return the wares.
One of the documents also made it very clear that the Alik'r had not been official representatives of their government or so, but highly paid assassins and thugs; this confirmed Saadia՚s story and made it clear that we had decided rightly to support her side rather than the Alik'r side. The name of their client was not provided, but they had been allowed and encouraged to ally with local bandits to create some additional havoc, and some of them had obviously operating in this area for quite a few weeks. As many of the stolen wares could have been recognized by local dealers, they had made preparations to get the loot transported to other holds and sold there, and one document seemed to indicate that such a transport should be arriving here any time.
When I had read that, I went outside again and climbed the small hill above the cave. Once up there I turned around and scanned the area. In the south I could see what I assumed to be the Shrine of Zenithar Antonius had mentioned, and there was a small cloud of dust visible in that direction. Hm, was it possible that a transport was approaching our location right now? Was there even a road from there, passable by carts?
[Author's Notes: Watching Indiana Jones movies certainly helped here; the one which could be a good reference is 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'.]
