The carriage was as cheap as I remembered, and the gold I had received numbered at around 150, leaving me a decent amount of money to work with, since I, at best, could buy some food or drink, what with not needing to purchase armor or weapons.

Although, I supposed, I could possibly create food with my creation spell, I also wasn't too worried about it. With my body being some sort of static entity made with the logic of a video game character, I likely didn't need to eat, and would have noticed if I did by now.

My thoughts, as relevant as they seemed at first, drifted off into uninspired musings before long as the carriage continued it's slow trek across the countryside. The driver's friendly chatter slowly drifted off as we enjoyed Skyrim's natural beauty, until I finally drifted off into a nap.

"Well well well. A carriage, eh? One of those cheap and easy transportation deals? Let's see how cheap. Don't forget to make it easy for us. We want your money, but your life is worth nothing to us if you struggle."

I woke up to the sound of, I'm guessing an Imperial bandit leader and his friends, robbing the carriage I'd taken.

"Your little passenger though, a Breton? He's gotta be worth something to someone. Fine armor there, and you don't see a lot of his kind outside of the Reachmen."

I don't know if it was the unreality of the situation, given that this was a small surprise in a world that I would treat like a game in another life, or the success of my fighting so far, but I sighed and stood up, ignoring the bandits who were atop some horses with swords and axes out, and hopped off the back of the carriage.

"Hey there, Breton. Giving up already?" the leader asked, but given the tension they all exhibited and the way they choked up on their weapons, they didn't appreciate my nonchalance.

"Shove off or die, I have places to be." I answered, not quite unworried, but confident enough in my abilities.

"Big words from a small man. Forget his value, let's kill him and loot his corpse!" he cried, prompting the men to attack.

I unsheathed my sword quickly, and woth the other hand, cast a spell.

'Conjure Familiar: Bear' I cast. The glowing purple portal had three of the nine bandits bringing up their guard, but they didn't anticipate the bear as opposed to the more common wolf, and it immediately mauled one of them.

"Huh" I thought, "That was stronger than I anticipated."

The swordplay I used was nothing special, not decoratively or creatively, but it had strong muscle behind it, and the blade was a higher quality than theirs, so it did well. If I blocked a blow, they chipped their weapon, and if they blocked a blow, I cut the metal deeply, easily ruining their weaponry.

The bear finished the rest off, though it seemed the bandit leader and one of the others that had a horse had fled.

"Thank you, Breton. You saved my life, and my livelihood." the carriage driver called out from where he'd been, kneeling in front of his carriage trying to keep his horse calmed.

"No thanks necessary. They'd have attacked me just the same as you. Bandits are bandits. I wanted to head this way, so I would have seen them regardless."

"Still, as a token of my thanks, let me refund half your trip."

I stopped him from digging in his coin purse. "No. I'll take what these men had, and you can be on your way. This is close enough to where I wanted to be anyway."

"Here?" he asked incredulously. "This is the mountains, still several hour until Morthal."

I nodded with a grin. "Saves me some of the walk back this way. If I'd known this was the path you were taking, I'd have asked you to stop around here anyway."

The carriage driver hesitated. "Uh... are your sure? I could drop you off, but we usually have a pretty strict policy about not stopping until we get to the agreed upon destination..."

"This is fine. Besides, I handled the bandits. Thanks for the ride."

"Good luck on your travels, Breton."

"The same to you."

I watched the carriage driver finally leave, winding his way out of sight, and soon, out of mind. He'd taken the path northeast out of Whiterun, following the road up near Dawnstar before heading West to Morthal, which put me directly in front of the Labyrinthian.

I smiled, readied my sword for danger, and entered the old ruins. Just there to the left was the Dragon Priest Mask shrine, just as I recalled from the games.

I entered carefully, cognizant of dangers that may be more unusual than the game had held, but my worry was misplaced as I entered the main room to see the full display of empty broken masks, except for the Wooden Mask, left untouched by age or wear.

Lifting it and feeling the inhuman thrum of power contained in what appeared to be simple wood, I placed it on my face, and felt the world twist around me.

The room was pristine, the display was perfectly intact, and I could see the edges of the mask underneath the stone Dragon latch.

Checking the door and the gaps in the windows, I felt a powerful magickal phenomenon, like a barrier, that made any effort to get outside seem impossible, similarly to the game, but with perhaps more relevant points.

Turning back to the monument, I started off with the most important, most vital magickal power I could ever use to utterly boondoggle this world.

Using Creation Of All Things, I created a Crowbar, and pried the stone dragon latch open.

Tha mask was pristine, in part due to careful positioning, and in part due to being a particularly tough piece.

"What is this?!" a monstrous voice tried to call out, but I had already slipped off the Wooden Mask in favor of my own.

The world returned to the present, or rather my perception of it did, and I turned around with my lovely new accessory donned on my face to spot an old wizened Draugr, standing there in the doorway, though with his arms behind his back.

"So, you have come. Thief from the old age, or rather this one. Stealing the ornamental Konahrik mask from us as though you were owed it, without having done the proper procedures to be granted such privilege."