The Legend of Zelda: Skyrim - Chapter 12: Traversing Ustengrav
I am so, so sorry for not updating for so long. It took three months of my beta insisting that I finish the chapter. Three days ago, I finally decided to sit down and just write. This is the result. Enjoy chapter 12.
Two Necromancers were standing besides a fallen pillar, performing various healing spells and wrapping their wounds with cloth bandages. Eventually, one of them spoke. "Those bandits gave us a lot of trouble. Who'd know they'd have a magic user with them?"
The other shook her head. "We didn't know. Thankfully we managed to kill them before they could kill us."
The man nodded. "Yes. We must be careful, someone else could come along, seeking the treasure that this tomb must hold."
Before either Necromancer could say another word, someone walked into view from around a standing pillar. Whoever they were, they wore armor that was surprisingly well fitting for them; the armor appeared to be studded armor at first glance. The warrior had a bow, two daggers, and a sword and shield on his person, beneath his helmet, dirty blonde hair was just visible, and two icy blue eyes gazed at them from the darkness.
"What? We must have missed one. And just when we thought we killed them all." The male Necromancer took a step forwards, eyeing the newcomer. "Although you don't look like you'd be much trouble to me."
The man nodded to his ally and the two Necromancers began to raise the bodies of the bandits. The warrior took a step back, eyeing the reanimated corpses, then reached to his side, drew his sword, brought his shield to bear, and charged forwards.
The warrior, despite not looking like much, soon proved to know how to fight. He ducked and weaved between the reanimated bandits, blocking when necessary, stabbing when the bandits left themselves open.
"...Who is this guy..." The male Necromancer looked at his ally, who shook her head in bewilderment.
"I have no idea. That blade he's holding is a greatsword, how in the name of Oblivion is he wielding it with one hand?"
The man shook his head and then noticed that the bandits had been killed by the warrior, who was now walking towards them, swinging the greatsword without any effort.
The Necromancers backed away a bit, before they summoned their magic and began to fight the warrior themselves.
The warrior dodged the various spells the two Necromancers shot at him, ran towards the man, then pushed him to the ground. The woman drew a knife and lunged towards the warrior, but he dodged that as well, spun around, and knocked the knife to the ground with a well aimed sword swipe before pushing the woman down to the ground as well.
The Necromancers were shocked - the warrior had somehow bested them, and now they were both on their backs before the man, who was looking down at them, his sword raised a bit.
"Please don't kill us, if you don't kill us, we'll leave right now and never speak a word of this to anyone." The male Necromancer closed his eyes and simply waited for the blade to kill him, but it never did.
The man opened his eyes to find that the warrior was still standing there, looking down at him, then the warrior lowered his sword, then returned it to its scabbard.
The Necromancers noticed that the man wasn't going to attack them, so they stood up, backed away, then walked around the man before they started to run towards the door that led outside.
The man opened the door and then noticed the woman wasn't behind him; she was behind the pillar close to the door, merely watching the man as he looked around the room, then walked over to an opening in the wall and vanished from view.
Link wondered if he did the right thing, letting those two Necromancers go. After all, they could just do what they were doing somewhere else. Or, maybe they had had a change of heart.
He was still thinking about the fight when he came across five Draugrs and he made short work of them with Dawn and Dusk.
Two minutes after the last Draugr fell, Link found himself in a room full of vases, most of which were intact. He walked up to one and opened it, only to find that there were fifty Septims inside, but they were out of reach. Link gazed at the coins for a moment, before he stepped back, then kicked the vase over, shattering it when it hit the ground. The Hylian froze, wondering if anyone had heard the vase shatter before he decided not to worry about it.
Not one of the vases was left intact, Link figured that if he didn't break them, time and looters would. He supposed he was doing future looters a favor, having already destroyed the vases.
When Link finally left the room with vases after acquiring three potions of minor healing, he noticed a table up against the wall and walked up to it. There wasn't anything of value, simply alchemy ingredients and empty tankards. Past the table, further down the hall, was another room filled with vases.
In addition to the twelve intact urns, this room contained another table, which held when inspected - a chaurus egg (lying in a cast iron pot), a potion of minor healing, a potion of health, a draught of the healer, and a book called Mystery of Talara, V2. After thinking about it for a moment, Link decided to take everything, including the chaurus egg and book, the egg for alchemy, and the book for further reading.
Link left the second room of vases and continued down the hallway, a hand slightly holding his sword's hilt in case anything leapt at him from the shadows. The Hylian reached the end of the hallway and caught a glimpse of a somewhat hidden staircase to his right just before the next room. Link made his way down the staircase slowly, but encountered nothing, not even as he entered the room at the bottom of said staircase.
There was a table at the far end of the room that had twelve Septims piled up, and an old bow of some sort. To the left of the table was a partially hidden pull-chain. When Link activated the pull-chain, it revealed a secret passageway. At the far end of the passageway was a lone chest. Link kicked open the chest and its contents were revealed to be the lantern and conveniently, some lantern oil. Link retraced his steps to the hallway after walking back down the passageway and climbing the stairs, then entered the next room.
The room consisted of a narrow, two level main chamber with an overlooking balcony. Link stepped into the room and a lone draugr burst from a nearby sarcophagus with a muted roar.
As the creature lunged in his direction, Link drew Numinex's Bane with one hand and used Flames with the other, burning the Draugr first, then slashing at the on fire creature with the blade.
The combination of both Flames and the sword attack killed the Draugr, and as it dropped to the ground, another Draugr was alerted by the commotion and as it ran over to Link, yet another Draugr, this one sleeping, was woken up, and it too, headed for the Hylian to attack him. Link once again used the combination of both Flames and his sword to deal with the two Draugr and once the two undead dropped to the ground, he stepped over them and continued on his way.
There was an iron battleaxe by the middle alcove and an iron helmet by the last one, however Link ignored them and walked up the stairs to the balcony, where he found a chest, two potions of minor healing, and one Potion of the Knight.
The Hero of Twilight then took two steps over to the chest and kicked it open, revealing the contents to be various useless armors and twenty Septims. Link took the Septims and left the armor behind.
There was a stone bridge leading to a blackened carved door down a few steps. In the left corner was some sort of crystal and a coin purse that, when inspected, held fifteen Septims.
Link took both the crystal and Septims, approached the black carved door, pushed it open, and stepped through.
The dual doors slammed shut with an echoing bang, and as Link slowly walked down the few steps that were in front of him, he caught a glimpse of some massive chamber. However, it was too misty to really see much, other than the fact that there were several tall pillars and some flames.
The Hylian eventually met a long Draugr after walking down the natural hallway, and he sidestepped the creature, then drew Dawn and stabbed the Draugr in the chest, killing it instantly. As the Draugr fell to the ground, Link caught something in the corner of his vision and he looked up and to his right a bit.
There was a massive cavern of sorts, one with five tall pillars and broken stone. There was a natural bridge that disappeared from view, a lone pine tree perched on rocks, and when Link looked down, he saw some sort of light source at the bottom of the cavern, to his left. There was a water source to his right that was fed by a waterfall and more trees. On the far end of the cavern, there were flames. Skeletons were patrolling another ruin and one of them had activated some sort of flame trap.
Watching his footing, Link walked over to a wall and sat down on it, merely taking in the sight before him in silent awe.
'I wonder how long it took for them to build all of this.', he thought as he absentmindedly swung his legs back and forth a few times. 'I imagine it must have taken a few centuries at least. Maybe I can ask Farengar once I get back to Whiterun. Gods, Whiterun is so far away from here... Hang on, what is that?'
Something was shining on a nearby ledge. Link couldn't exactly tell what it was from where he was, so, after making sure he wouldn't fall to his death, he hopped off the wall he was sitting on and slowly made his way to the shining object, which revealed itself to be some sort of shield.
There were engraved feathers, eighteen on the outer rim and eighteen on the inner rim. There were several rivets holding the shield together. The feathers went outwards a bit, then curved in a half circle until they came to a point, with room for one more engraved feather in the empty slot between the two shield halves.
In the middle of the shield, there was some sort of raised symbol.
Link picked it up and placed the other shield he had where the golden shield had been, then tested the new shield's weight. 'It's not the Hylian Shield, but it'll do for now. Speaking of which, I wonder where it is.'
After staying where he was for a few moments, Link made his way back to the main hallway and continued onwards. He passed an iron ore vein and stopped before it for a few seconds, before he figured there was more ore veins in Skyrim than the one he was standing in front of, not to mention that he had no current way of mining the ore, and he left the iron ore behind.
Link soon came across four pressure plates, the first right one was lit up in flames due to a skeleton resting on said plate, keeping it active. Link tested the other three pressure plates with a nearby rock before determining that the left side was safe to cross.
Once the Hylian passed the flame traps, he discovered that the path before him was blocked by fallen rocks, however, there was an open path to his left and he took it.
The hallway opened up to a stone bridge that spanned across a room with tables with various food items on them. A lone Draugr noticed Link as he stepped onto the bridge and the creature lunged towards him with its arms outstretched. Link simply side stepped and the creature fell to the stone floor below the bridge. The Hylian quickly crossed the bridge, ran down the rough circle stone staircase, then reached to his side, drew Dusk, flipped it around so the blade was facing outwards, then ran up to the Draugr that was just then getting up and stabbed it in the chest, killing it instantly.
This unfortunately altered the other Draugr in the room of Link's presence, and the creature started to run across the other stone bridge, no doubt on its way to attack him. However, the Draugr never even stepped off the bridge, for Link decided to test out his new bow.
A lone arrow sailed through the musty ancient air and struck the Draugr in the neck, killing it instantly and causing it to fall off the bridge to the stone floor.
The Hero of Twilight paused, then stepped over the dead creature at his feet, then noticed something being held in the Draugr's left hand. Closer inspection revealed the object to be a small bowl of bone meal. Something told Link that Bone Meal was used for alchemy in Skyrim, so he took it from the Draugr and decided to walk around for a bit.
From where he was currently standing, he noticed that there were several tables all around him - five up against the left wall, a table directly to his right, two more further into the room on the right side before a platform, and one more on the other side of the platform.
Link approached the tables near the platform first, only to find that the table had various food items on it. He decided to pass up on the food for now as he had no idea how long it had been sitting there and decided not to risk it. There was only a sheaf of wheat on the table on the other side of the platform and he ignored that as well. There was a lit brazier on the platform, and behind that was a stone throne.
'I suppose this must have been some sort of meeting hall. But why so far underground?'
The Hylian walked over to the five tables and found a charred hide of some creature. His instincts once again told him that this hide was used for alchemy, so he took it. There were other items on the one table, including a branch of lavender and a purple mountain flower, among other things. Link took the lavender branch and flower for later potion making, made his way to the other side of the room, pushed open a door, and found himself in a small room that housed a chest and a stone table that had two potions of minor healing on it.
When inspected, the chest held various pieces of useless armor and ten ancient arrows. Link took the arrows, left the armor behind, then climbed a nearby staircase, crossed the second bridge, then entered the next room.
The room he was in looked rather bare, save for a few sarcophagi. However, there was a small room to his left that was blocked by two barred gates. The solution to opening said gates was apparent - there was one pull-chain beside the gates, and one more beside a lone sarcophagus to the west of the gates.
Link approached the pull-chain to the west first, activated it, then as the second gate retracted, two Draugr awoke - one from the sarcophagus right next to him, the other from another sarcophagus to the north.
The Hylian waited until the two Draugr were walking over the oil slick that was between the two sarcophagi, then used Flames to set the undead creatures on fire. Link then retreated to the gate that was still down, pulled the chain to his right, and stepped into the small room before him as the two Draugr burnt up into piles of ash.
The room contained a chest and a table that had several things on it - a dagger, a potion of healing, an empty soul gem, and a potion of magicka. Link walked up to the chest and opened it, inside was a simple gold ring and a necklace that appeared to be slightly glowing with a blue hue. The Hylian took both the ring and the necklace, closed the chest, then approached the table.
He had only seen two of these before now, one at Orphan Rock, the other in Farengar's study. The mage had called them arcane enchantment tables.
There were two Soul Gems on the enchantment table. One was slightly glowing, while the other was dim, signifying that it was empty. Link picked up the filled Soul Gem and looked at it for a second, then at the gold ring., then at the glowing necklace.
Link placed the necklace he had found on the table, expecting something to happen, but nothing did. He remembered Farengar doing something to some object and looked down at the glowing necklace, then placed a hand on the table and leaned forwards a bit, trying to study the runes carved into the arcane table.
As he did this, Link happened to glance up at the necklace and stared at it as the object started to grow brighter, and brighter, until it was gone. However, where the necklace had been, were now blue tinted runes, floating in the air above the table. The Soul Gem fell to the dirt floor when this happened but Link paid no attention as he heard something in his head.
Two words. Resist Frost. The runes then vanished and the Hylian merely stood there before the table, trying to figure out what had just happened.
He decided to believe that what had just happened was a side effect of Skyrim's magic, much like the spell tomes, then decided to see if he could enchant the ring much like using spells after placing said ring on the arcane enchanting table.
Nothing happened. After a moment, Link placed his hands on the table and leaned forwards a bit, then mentally focused on the enchantment he had just learned. Yet, again, nothing happened. The boy took a step back from the table, then picked up the Soul Gem from where it had fallen, thought twice about using it, and hesitantly placed it next to the ring. After that, he had a notion that perhaps it would help the enchantment process if he once again placed his hands on the table and leaned forwards a bit.
The crystal shattered and tendrils of energy surrounded the golden ring before the Resist Frost runes appeared above the ring and then imbued themselves into the metal of the ring. The ring then began to take on the same blue glow the necklace had had. After donning the newly enchanted ring, Link left the small room and walked through the tunnel to the west, up some stairs - stopping to pick up what appeared to be a healing potion - before traveling north.
The tunnel eventually opened up to the main chamber. There was a stone path heading left that had collapsed and it led down to the main room. Three skeletons wielding bows were walking back and forth across the chamber, while another two were patrolling a hallway along the south and west walls.
Link took his time walking down the stone path and eventually reached the floor of the main chamber. The five skeletons hadn't noticed him yet, and he dispatched all of them with five well aimed arrows. he then walked around the chamber, finding an alcove with a petty soul gem, a garnet, and a flawless garnet that was past a flame spout trap, a chest that held twenty arrows, and another alcove that was well lit at the left of the bottom of the entrance pillar that held a potion of minor healing, a potion of minor magicka, and a chest that held fifteen ancient arrows.
Link approached the throne that was in the northwestern corner and shot the sleeping skeleton that was sitting in it with a well placed arrow before it could wake up, then took the two minor healing potions, one atop each pillar that were standing on either side of the throne.
The Hero of Twilight then headed east, down a spiral dirt path that gradually sloped down to the waterfall he had seen earlier, and then stopped dead in his tracks just before the underground stream. Chanting. For a moment, Link didn't remember why this chanting was so familiar, then he realized what the chanting meant.
On the other side of the stream was a Word Wall.
'Why didn't I hear the chanting before I started walking down the path? it's certainly loud...I have a feeling I'm going to be finding these Word Walls in the most unexpected places.'
The Hylian eventually found a stone path that he used to cross the stream and approached the stone structure that towered over him. As he did so, Link's vision started to blur and he tried to focus on the glowing symbols that were engraved on the wall. Eventually he couldn't even make out the symbols, rather just that there was this blue glow. Then he could see again, the glow was gone, and there was now a single word in his head. Feim.
Link stood there for a moment, wondering what the word Feim meant, then found himself looking at the waterfall. Due to his experience in traveling through various dungeons and hidden locations, Link knew a thing or two about secrets.
'I bet there's something back there. Even if there isn't at least I checked.'
The Hylian looked back at the now silent Word Wall for a moment before he walked up to the waterfall, hesitated for a second, then walked through it.
There was in fact something behind the waterfall. There was a passageway, and a small cave. There was a chest and a sleeping Draugr; it was no doubt guarding the chest. Link walked down the passageway, drew Dawn, and stabbed the undead creature when he got close enough, killing it instantly. He then turned his attention to the chest and saw a sword leaning against it.
Link picked up the sword and examined it, then swung it once, noting that the strange sword didn't seem to feel too off balance. He decided to take it with him and ask someone about it later. The chest held one garnet, ten Septims, and a minor stamina potion.
The Hylian then spent a few minutes walking back down the passageway, past the waterfall, back up the spiral dirt path, and across a stone bridge to the east.
Directly in front of him were three stone posts arranged in a triangle with a series of closed gates straight ahead. A lone skeleton was walking along a walkway above the gates and Link promptly shot the undead creature with a single arrow, killing it instantly. The Hylian then walked up the stairs to his right and checked the two burial urns, finding that the first one held twenty Septims, while the other held a silver garnet ring. After taking the ring, the Septims, and a single potion of minor healing that was sitting between the two burial urns, Link walked back down the stairs and over to a dead Draugr, where he found a potion of minor magicka. He then returned to the stone posts and examined them.
One lit up, causing Link to take a step back and he watched as it turned off. After a few seconds, he walked up to the first one again, saw that it, again, lit up, and then walked forwards, causing the other two posts to light up. In response, the gates opened before him and then slammed shut as the three posts grew dim.
'So these posts control the gates opening...Interesting. It seems like speed is required...That's it! This must be a test to see if I know Wuld! I think the Greybeards were preparing me for this with that test they gave me.'
Link walked back to the first post, eyed the gates, then took off at a run, once he passed the three stones, the gates opened, and he Shouted.
"Wuld!"
Time seemed to stop as he used Whirlwind Sprint. Link shot across the stone platform and through the gates just in time, as all three closed behind him as he came to a stop in another room.
Link found himself in a room filled with rubble and raised plates. There was a raised platform before him with a lit brazier in the middle and he walked up to it, then tested one of the raised plates. Nothing happened and Link stepped onto the raised platform and walked across it to the other side. More raised plates were on the ground before him, before he could move, a frostbitten spider dropped to the ground on one of the raised plates, and then was burnt alive by flames.
Due to some trial and error, Link figured out that all of the raised platforms were flame traps, however, he eventually discovered that he could cross the room by walking on the fallen rubble that was everywhere. Another frostbitten spider dropped down at one point, but it landed on a flame trap, and it too was burnt alive.
The Hero of Twilight finally made it across the room and to another raised platform.
There were two egg sacs in a corner on the raised platform and when Link examined them, they held two Spider Eggs each. He took them, as he figured they would be useful for alchemy. He then walked further into the room, where two Frostbitten Spiders dropped from the ceiling.
Link used Flames on one, then decided to test the new sword he had picked up and stabbed the other spider in the head, killing it instantly. He then attempted to wipe off the blade on the spider's corpse and took a few steps forward, then leapt back as a massive spider lunged forwards, beady eyes glinting in the musty air.
Link raised the new sword he had acquired and ran forwards, then attempted to stab the giant frostbite spider in the abdomen. He was swatted away by two of the spiders legs and he retreated around twenty paces back, then sheathed his sword, unslung his bow from his shield, and started firing arrows. Ten in all. The giant spider hissed at him as each arrow found their mark in its body, then, before Link could react, the thing charged at him and spat poison.
As Link tried to figure out what he was going to do about the dead spider being pinned by the gate, the adrenaline faded and with it, came the realization that he had in fact been poisoned. He tried to distract himself from the steadily growing pain as he knelt down and rummaged through his knapsack.
'No antidote...Great. I think healing potions will work.'
Link downed five minor healing potions and waited a few seconds. The pain decreased somewhat, however it was still there. He then used Fast Healing several times until the pain was at a much more manageable level. Then Link noticed that he felt as if something was missing. On a whim, he tried to cast Fast Healing again, but nothing happened. He tried to cast the other two Healing spells he knew, and then Flames. Again, nothing happened.
Knowing that he couldn't do anything about his current condition, Link realized that he could, at least, retain some of his magical prowess. He downed one minor Magicka potion and waited. He started to feel somewhat normal a few seconds later - his ability to use spells had returned but he didn't want to risk it. Instead, Link got up and pulled the chain again, however, nothing happened, as the gate was stuck in the spider's corpse. He spent a few minutes using his super strength to first lift up the gate, then to pull the spider from said gate and dragged it to the right side of the hallway. As soon as he did this, the gate slammed up into the ceiling and he was able to enter the next room.
Link found himself in a well lit chamber. Down the steps was a walkway that was surrounded by water. At the end of the walkway was a stone coffin. As Link made his way down the steps, four blackened stone statutes rose out of the water and he stopped walking and merely watched the statues until they had stopped moving.
'That's possibly the first time I've seen something like that. It'd be more amazing if I wasn't poisoned. I hope I can get back to Whiterun soon...'
Link walked down the walkway and up to the coffin, expecting the horn to be there. It wasn't. Instead, there was a folded note on top of the coffin. Link took the note, unfolded it, and read it.
"You mean I came all this way for nothing?"