A/N: Dawnguard add-on Mod "Arcwind Point Dungeon"

Song: "Diggy Diggy Hole" YOGcast (with a few word tweaks) Don't know this song? Aargh! Go at once to YT and look up this very important cultural anthem!

Chapter 37: Shout and Sing

"Harbinger, uh, great honor to meet you," said Curtis, blinking at this game figure come to life. Dana had brought Farkas and Amalie Felix into the kitchen. Curtis was frying up some crab croquettes. Most everybody was upstairs, crowded in the halls while Lady Helsette was giving birth. Amalie had grabbed his hand upon introduction, saying, "I love those new mirrors you invented," and rushed upstairs. Dana followed up after her.

"You going too?" Farkas shook his head.

"If you don't mind, I think I'll stay down here," Farkas replied. He glanced at the other kitchen's occupant, sitting at the table with a cup of tea and a sweetroll, did a double-take, and looked again as he recognized the robes.

"Oh, uh, Harbinger Farkas, this is Master Einarth of High Hrothgar."

"My honor to meet you, sir," said Farkas.

"The honor is mine, harbinger," whispered Einarth. Farkas winced and rubbed his ears. Curtis was still impressed at how far the Greybeard had come in the few days of lectures and intensive voice training with Irdal. Master Einarth had also helped with testing the tone-modulating mask Irdal had put together for Lady Helsette to filter out the power overtones inherent in her thu'um infused voice. Sure, you sound weirdly synthesized, but you didn't accidentally blow out the world just by saying, "Hi!" The Greybeard could whisper-talk now, speaking slowly, because he had to put tremendous conscious effort to modulate his voice. He sounded fine to Curtis, but Farkas must still be a werewolf if he reacted like someone clapped both his ears. All the other humans present only thought the old man had laryngitis. Curtis recalled that the previous Harbinger had been Lady Helsette's cousin Nicky, who was now in Cyrodiil learning to navigate the swamp that was Imperial politics as the next Emperor Felix Mede. He also recalled that if you rejected the offer to become a werewolf, you'd never get the Glenmoril Witch quest to undo the lycanthropy. Was that silly condition the case here? Was that why Farkas and his brother were still werewolves? But reality already differed from the Game. Nicky Felix had become the Harbinger despite rejecting lycanthropy and held the post for a year before being adopted by the Emperor.

"Sit down, sit down," insisted Curtis. "Crab croquettes and fish sticks. Hungry? I'm making supper 'cuz everybody's either upstairs or out. Ser Dana and Ser Ramarasi drove out everybody who doesn't know the lady is the Dragonborn, so if something leaks, we're covered." Farkas sat. Curtis scooped some croquettes and fish sticks onto a large platter along with thick, crispy potato fries and two small bowls of garlic aioli and apple vinegar in the center.

"So, most of the servants were sent out, and you got assigned the cooking?"

"Naw, I like cooking, and it's a lot more relaxing than being up there just waiting. Most of the guys are over at the Cornerclub, though, betting on how long it'll take and how much a little dragon will weigh. Winner of the time gets the first pot. Winner of the weight guess gets all the coins balancing out the kid's weight on the scales."

"Maybe later. These are great. Never had these before," said Farkas, holding up a fish stick. "And what's this sauce? I'd like to take some back to Jorrvaskr."

"I can give you the recipes. The garlic sauce doesn't travel well and spoils in hours because of the raw egg unless you can find something ice cold to stick it in."

"Aye. Amalie has been talking about creating an ice room below the meadery. So, I hear you're the leader of a group of revived Falmer and Dwemer."

"Uh, yeah. But my Falmer prefer to be called the Snowmer now. I'm sure you understand why they want to be called something different."

"Aye. My brother and I will be keeping our schedules open so that we'll be at Northshore when your ship arrives. We'll be escorting your group to Darkfall. I hope you don't mind if we travel with you to your vale. Can't help but be curious. And maybe do a little hunting."

"Nah, it's fine with me. But I figure Gelebor would have the final say since he's been its guardian since forever."

The smell of food lured some of the witnesses down to nibble. Curtis filled a large tray for them with an additional bowl of chilled vegetable sticks with a ranch dip, a bowl of fruit slices with a bowl of whipped berry cream dip, and they disappeared back upstairs with it.

"How long has it been?" asked Farkas.

"Oh, it started noon, so, um, three hours. Light pains. The lady's been up and walking around, even had a bath brought up. I think she's still in early stages if she's eating. I've heard it takes longer if it's the first child. So I've heard."

"Revyn's not here," Farkas stated, frowning. He had his head cocked, listening to the chatter upstairs.

"He's over at Fort Kastav. Lunch with the visiting non-Alliance jarls and General Tullius. She wasn't showing signs this morning when he left, so he doesn't know. We'd send someone, but she said it wasn't necessary. He didn't need to be distracted from his job, and she was sure he'd be back in time anyway because they were supposed to have dinner with family."

Irdal came down. Farkas looked at her with interest, especially since she wasn't disguising her face or her long Dwemer ears.

"My lord, I have a report from Agrund. Balvus, Sidanyis, and Brother Salindil were co-dreaming when Brother Salindil received an overwhelming feeling that someone he knew was in deathly trouble. Balvus feels this is not a random nightmare but a true link that was made because Salindil's normal mental shields were down, as they need to be to share the dream state. The sender was the one with the power. However, the call seemed to be a general send, as in prayer and not specifically to the aldarch. Still, Balvus and Sidanyis were able to trace the emoting to somewhere in the Rift."

"That's a lot of territory. Any other clues? I mean, if you're telling me this, they're wanting me to look, right?"

"I will ask." She went downstairs because no one was there to interrupt her, unlike upstairs which sounded like a party.

"Day-and-a-half gallop just to get to the border of the Rift," said Farkas. "The Indorils are the main patrols in the Rift. Sadri can send birds to them as soon as it's light."

Farkas did go next door to the Cornerclub to meet with the other Felix men there and the Redoran guests who'd been kicked out. Master Einarth retreated to another room for a nap. So many people about exhausted him.

Two more hours. He could hear that things were getting intense upstairs. The front door slammed open. Sadri blew past him. Curtis continued breading and frying up another batch of fish sticks, and had plated them when Ilya and Hrafnhildr ran in. "Sit down girls, relax. Here, fishsticks and crab balls, and looks like you could use some cold beers. How'd you know to come back?"

"Jarl Ravencrone told him it was time to leave," said Ilya. "That weird riding lizard of his can really haul tail once it's warmed up to full speed. We couldn't keep up." She glanced at the stairs. "How long has she been going?"

"Late morning. Noon. Most of the men are next door and they're running bets."

"Like I know anything," snorted Hrafnhildr. She popped a crab ball in her mouth and hummed approvingly.

"Well, it shouldn't be too long now that Sadri's here," said Ilya. "We'll be up with the rest of the guards."

"Yeah. I figured. You can bring this up with you." He put another tray down in front of her.

"They've like got their own bets going," said Hrafnhildr.

…

It was a girl at ten pounds and miscellany copper drakes and a dozen pearls. The lady cracked her tone modulator mask, but it held valiantly together until the end. However, the other women made enough noise to shake the house, and the ghosts whipped around the rooms like will-o-wisps.

X—X—X—X—X—X—X

They left at dawn: him, Elden, Ralis, Farkas, Taliesin, and Severus. The clues they had were a mountainous area of ancient ruins. Massive arches of stone with a resting Dragon. All Curtis could think of in the Rift that had stone arches large enough to support a dragon was Arcwind Point. In the early vanilla game he knew, the area had two burial circle structures, one open-air and the other half-collapsed. The four arches were over the coffin of a deathlord or dragonpriest, depending on one's level. And sitting on the apex where the four arches met was the dragon. There were also steep stairs going up to another burial place and a path to a tall watchtower.

But the real Arcwind, according to Lady Helsette, who whispered the information after Curtis dared ask her the question despite Sadri's ferocious frown, said there was a word wall there that Curtis knew wasn't there in the vanilla game. And there was also the entrance to a crypt that she hadn't time to explore in the exposed barrow that Curtis remembered only holding a single deathlord. And higher up the side of the mountain where the word wall was, was a balcony with a set of large doors. She wasn't sure if it was another crypt or merely an entry point to the same underground structure.

Gotta love it when reality bites. It was almost certain that their rescue target was probably in that unknown crypt. To his great relief, Farkas, Severus, and Taliesin were gung-ho to help with this. Irdal and Ilya wanted to come, but Curtis forbade it. Irdal had her self-appointed job to teach the Dragonborn and the Greybeard voice control, and Ilya was necessary to keep the hot-tempered Hrafnhildr on a sane keel.

And who were they looking for? Salindil wasn't sure. He tried to recall any details, but the only face that came to mind during his meditation was a Dominion guard captain, a former patient who had marched into their hospital with a hand-picked band and told them it was time to go because the Thalmor had ordered their arrests. He covertly escorted them a port where the priests got passage on a Breton ship. However, he and his group returned to their stations within the Dominion army.

They stopped in Ivarstead to resupply and get any information they could about Arcwind Point. Ivarstead was bigger and more prosperous than he could've imagined. The Indorils kept things orderly. They'd had a lot of practice when it came to keeping a religion-oriented city or town running smoothly despite heavy traffic of pilgrims, hucksters, and other strangers coming through. Curtis hoped that there would be time to explore the place later. He'd even heard of regular guides going up to High Hrothgar. Master Einarth had said that while the number of visitors and their gifts were gratifying, they disliked the occasional ugly bouts of politics and racial bigotry that happened outside their doors. And then there were the intruders who rudely scaled around to the back courtyard and tried to find ways to climb past the deadly wind wall Paarthurnax had created to keep any but Dragons, Greybeards, and the Dragonborn from the top of the strumah. Their acolytes handled the rude and unthinking ones. But when it turned physical, Thane Selrun's guards stationed nearby could be summoned to help. Nord guards. Thane Selrun knew better than to have Dunmer up there. He hired Nords and paid them. Not just for cultural correctness, but because they tolerated living up there far better than Dunmer. He did have plenty of mixed Dunmer and Nord patrols around the mountain below the snow line.

While he was curious enough to do the climb. Severus was surprisingly less so. He'd had enough of prophecies. Meeting and talking with Master Einarth was sufficient for him to determine that going all the way up there wasn't necessary for him. And he would only do so if the unthinkable happened and Lady Helsette died before confronting Alduin or met Alduin and failed to kill him. Though, in the latter event, it was likely too late for a second Dragonborn to do anything anyways, especially after Alduin absorbed the lady's soul and power.

There was a problem lately that troubled the Greybeards: elusive trespassers. So far, they didn't appear to be having any luck identifying or even spotting them, and they easily eluded the Nord patrols. The Indoril spellswords and wizards had little success either. Whoever the intruders were, they could mask themselves from both conventional detection spells and the aura-detect shout. The latter should have been impossible; that shout could even detect active Dwemer combat robots. At least, in the Skyrim Game it could. But now that he thought about it, that made no sense. Curtis had an idea that a "ghost-hunting" trick like a laser projection grid might work or echo-location or heat-signature detection. Heck, even dog-tracking. But it'd take time for his people to build the equipment, and that was kind of low-priority when they had to get ready to move. The invisibility spell doesn't muffle noise, hide body odor, or erase heat or magic signatures. He suggested old-fashion dog packs to the Indorils. If fancy magic doesn't work, then go back to basics. Just spell the dogs and handlers against illusion spells and, though it pained him to think of it, leave one or two sacrificial dogs unprotected. If they suddenly changed behavior, there was a spellcaster in the area since the most active spells required proximity and line-of-sight, which also meant well within shooting range.

He couldn't help but notice the Harbinger didn't volunteer any help. Guess he was still trying to avoid going full werewolf mode.

Now, the Dragons. The Indorils confirmed Dragons were nesting at both Autumnwatch Tower and Arcwind. The Dragon at Autumnwatch was a peaceful one, a migrant from Solstheim and a follower of Paarthurnax. They should talk to the quicksilver mine foreman at Autumnwatch who was on speaking terms with the Dragon, and he'd escort them to the word wall. The Arcwind Dragon was still a hostile one. If the Nerevarine could talk to Dragons, the Autumnwatch Dragon could probably tell him more.

A mine at Autumnwatch? The Dragon must be a very tolerant one. Curtis found out that Thane Selrun expanded Ivarstead's territory, his holding, to the Autumnwatch area. He had also worked out a deal with the Largashbur Orcs to employ them as the primary mine workers. They had experience from most of their young ones working in the ebony mine of Narzulbur. Chief Gularzob of Largashbur was eager to bring his tribe back to work for their own stronghold rather than Narzulbur or the Legion.

The Autumnwatch Dragon was a strange one he'd never seen before. More serpentine. Curtis carried his binoculars (nice, compact bonemold and glass with 8x magnification) in a pouch on his belt, and he took them out to look. The dragon was more of a serpent, and it had quite an underbite. Its top scales, though, were a pretty shimmery blue-green, and its belly and underwing scales were gold. It was soaking up sunlight on the platform in front of the word wall. "That's a new type," he commented, passing the binocs to Elden.

"Looks nothing like Frosty," Elden commented, returning the binocs.

Navor, the mine foreman, a Redoran from Raven Rock, brought them to a halt at the bottom of the path leading up. "Wait here," he said gruffly. He went to the top of the path and they could hear him shouting in Dunmeris, "Oy! Aka! Duhnadagm taljed ohn en talehjid ohm balmarhin. Ohn ahrenshas de'isk?" The Dragon must have agreed because he turned back to them and gestured for them to come up.

"Does the Dragon speak Common?" asked Curtis.

"Not that I've heard, sera. Dragon, Dunmeris, and I think some old, old Nord language. It might, but I get better response using Dunmeris."

"The Dragon have a name?" asked Talieson.

Navor shrugged. "It's never said."

Most of the Autumnwatch ruins had been torn down and stones re-used to build a large holding pen for cattle, a small guard post to discourage tourists or adventurers from bothering the Dragon, and for roads. The primary tower still stood and even had some repairs done to reinforce the walls and roof so that the Dragon could curl up there if it wanted without fear of the roof collapsing under it. They got to the top and crossed the stone bridge to the wall platform and the Dragon.

"Dovahkiin," it said, looking at Severus. "Vul fahliil qostiid."

"Yes," answered Taliesin, stepping forward and speaking Dunmeris. "The promised of the Dunmeri. But not for Alduin."

"Um, everybody, back away now!" said Curtis as the Dragon propped its body up on his front legs and raised its head high. "Not you, Severus. Dragon to Dragon manners. Eldestshouts first!"

"GaaN," the Dragon barked, a wave of debilitation. The Nerevarine didn't stagger and fall over, though he did sway a bit. As soon as he steadied, he shouted back, projecting a cold front that would have been deadly to any but a Dragon.

"Dovahkiin," repeated the Dragon. "Drem Yol Lok."

"Drem Yol Lok to you too," said Severus in Dunmeris. Taliesin came back and laid a hand on his shoulder, casting a healing spell. "The name's Severus. Have you a name?"

"Hindlovaas."

"May I read the wall?"

"Geh."

Severus stared at it for a while then shook his head. "'Krii' is what I hear. Taliesin?"

Taliesin translated. "NONVUL BRON DahMaaN DaaR ROT DO FIN FODiiZ BORMah Wah KRii KO MOROKei KeiN LOS Wah ZIN GeiNMaaR Wah DIR KO MOROKei KeiN LOS Wah ZIN Pah DO KeiZaaL. Noble Nords remember these words of the hoar father. To kill in glorious war is to honor oneself, to die in glorious war is to honor all of Skyrim. So … 'kill' is the word here." They looked at the Dragon who merely shifted and coiled to one side of the platform.

"Oh, I remember this one," said Curtis. "It's the Marked for Death shout. It's usually one of those shouts you can't complete unless you follow a specific questline. In this case, the joining the Dark Brotherhood because one word is in the Falkreath sanctuary. But way I heard it, Thane Selrun actually killed the Brotherhood, so one should be able to get in there, unless bandits have taken it over or, um, there were Brotherhood members who survived. Um, the shout drains health and damages armor, so enemies take more damage. Another part of the word is, hm, the White Phial Quest, I think. Or, no. I think you don't need that quest to get the word because the wall is in the final tomb, not in the quest-locked room." They all looked blankly at him. He sighed.

"Okay. While you two have tinvaak with the Dragon, I'll just be over there on the tower heating some water for tea." Elden and Farkas followed him. Ralis stayed to listen since the Dragon was peaking Dunmeris. Navor excused himself to get back to work.

Dragon Hindlovaas seemed eager for conversation because the three spent quite a while talking, enough that Curtis got bored and donned his Dwemer armor and walked down to the quicksilver mine. Navor gave him a pickax and had a young orc take him down a couple levels to do some tunneling. The orcs already working to deepen the tunnel into the mountainside laughed and made jokes about breaking into a Dwemer ruin.

Yeah, it was hard work. Rocks and dirt from the overhead bounced off his helmet and pauldrons. But the bulky make of Dwemer armor was made for underground. An inside netting of fine cloth filtered the air that circulated under the armor.

Of course, he started singing to keep time.

Brothers of the mine rejoice! / Swing, swing, swing with me! / Raise your pick and raise your voice! / Sing, sing, sing with me!

Down and down into the deep / Who knows what we'll find beneath? / Diamonds, rubies, gold, and more / Hidden in the mountain store

Born underground / Suckled from a teat of stone / Raised in the dark / The safety of our mountain home

Skin made of iron / Steel in our bones / To dig and dig makes us free / Come on, brothers, sing with me!

I am a Dwemer, digging a hole / Diggy diggy hole, diggy diggy hole / I am a Dwemer, digging a hole / Diggy diggy hole, digging a hole

The sunlight will not reach this low / Deep, deep in the mine / Never seen the twin moons' glow / We won't fly so high

Fill a glass and down some mead / Stuff your bellies at the feast! / Stumble home and fall asleep / Dreaming in our mountain keep

Born underground / Grown inside a rocky womb / The Earth is our cradle / The mountain shall become our tomb

Face us on the battlefield / You will meet your doom / We do not fear what lies beneath / We can never dig too deep

I am a Dwemer …

"We're Orsimer!" yelled one miner, but they grunted along and their pickaxes hit more or less in unison and the earth chipped and crumbled before them. Heavy mallets pounded support beams and braces in place behind them.

X—X—X—X—X—X—X

"Drem Yol Lok!"

But the Autumnwatch Dragon, and a fire-breather, wasn't interested in tinvaak or ignoring them. Taliesin threw ice spears while everybody else except Curtis peppered it with crossbow bolts. Curtis wanted to test a sonic attack. He set his "Doctor Whovian" sonic screwdriver to welding mode, inserted it into a soul-gem powered mini-bullhorn/megaphone, a couple hundred watt-burst of amplification energy, thousands of times more than used in medical devices. When the Dragon swooped too close, he hit it with a blast of ultrasonics. The sound melted the circuitry of both devices and shattered the soulstones. As ultrasonics hit and passed through the Dragon, the vibrations agitated water molecules, cooking it alive. It dropped the Dragon almost as fast as the Dragonrend shout but a lot more painful. Taliesin and Severus quickly put an end to its agony.

"I don't recall the Dwemer having such horrifying attacks," said Severus.

"Oh, they had the technology, just never thought to apply it in that way. Took the humans of my past world to do that. Last I heard, it was a state department secret that ultrasonics were used to … Anyway, we use a milder version at Winterhold to test the purity of ores."

At the word wall, Severus heard the word "gaan." Taliesin translated again. "HET NOK KOPRaaN DO SVOLO WO PIRaaK MULaaG Wah KRiiN DOVah NUZ NI GaaN Wah KRiiN POGaaN. Here lies the body of Svolo, who possessed strength to kill a Dragon but not the stamina to kill many. So the word you learned affects stamina. Drains it most likely."

"Hey, that's the word Hindlovaas used to greet you, Severus," said Curtis.

"Yes, I recognize it," said Severus. "I wonder where the rest of it may be found?"

"Gonna use the Dragon's soul for it?"

"Mm, no. I'm more interested in that aura shout I got at the old Northwind mine near Shor's Stone."

"Oh, yeah. Super useful shout. Works better than any detect spells and it can even detect robots. Dunno how. Maybe because the complexity of its circuitry compared to the timers on the steam engines? Whatever. At least it works."

Severus sighed and said, "Yes, well, it should be useful in that dungeon we're going to explore."

Hind (hope) Lovaas (Song)

* "Oy! Dragon! Travelers to see you and to read your wall. You agree to this?"

Ted Hsu : Like honey-flavored meringue. Variation on Italian meringue.

Spidersauce : Yeah. I knew I was taking a risk writing Curtis this way, and I expected him to irritate. But he has to walk his own journey and do it the only way he knows how.

SenselessDude: Curtis says, "It's a game. One of many I've played. Like, I'm supposed to geek out on every backstory of every video game I've played? I mean, I get it, it's way important to a lot of people. Just wasn't to me back then, okay? And believe me, I'm regretting everything I don't know now that I'm stuck here."