Chapter 4: Shimmermist Grotto

[22nd – 23rd of First Seed 4E 202]

There had been some reports on nightly raids around the farms east of Whiterun, and a few farmhands were missing as well, as we had been told. A group of Companions, led by Aela and Farkas, with Ria, our two whelps and myself, had been tasked to venture into Shimmermist Cave and investigate; rumors had it that the trouble originated from that place. Initially we had not encountered big problems, but there were Falmer and chauruses inside, and Erik, one of the whelps, had not been careful enough and got hit by a powerful shock spell cast by a Falmer shaman.

For now, Erik was down on the ground, and his screaming had surely been heard everywhere around, specifically considering the superior sense of hearing Falmer were supposed to have. We prepared ourselves accordingly and were not surprised to see the next group of Falmer arriving just minutes later. Once more we could easily cope by mostly using bolts and arrows, supported by the occasional magic use from Irene. This time none of us was getting hit; Erik's example had made us more cautious, and it specifically helped that Irene knew a spell to throw a magical light towards our enemies, for proper target illumination; with that assistance, Aela՚s arrow never missed their target.

After a short rest and waiting for Erik to recover and being able to move again, we slowly proceeded. Once we had followed another passage, this one again with some glowing mushrooms on the walls and other mushrooms on the ground, the path opened up into a medium sized cavern. There were at least three corpses on the ground, not Falmer, but Nords, probably either bandits or adventurers. Along the walls I saw some empty Falmer tents, and between those there were some patches of mushrooms, mostly those red ones. Suddenly I remembered what Mia had asked for, and I added some of the Fly Amita – what had the correct name been again? It looked similar to a 'Fliegenpilz', as a special type of poisonous mushroom was called in my native language – into my satchel, and I also went back into the last passage and harvested some more of the glowing mushrooms. Along the ground on one side I also noticed an area covered with whitish fungi, and I took a few of them as well. I did not know and I did not have to know what those mushrooms were good for and what kind of magical properties they might have, but Arcadia and Mia were able to make use of almost anything I handed over to them; if there actually was something they were not familiar with, they'd sure be able to find out by experimenting. In the game, once could use an alchemy table and make quick progress in alchemy skill just by repeating the same task over and over, but I was not patient enough to spend that much time on such activities, just to 'grind' a single skill. Others were so much more skilled in that, and I might have to spend years to even get close to what Mia could do easily. Considering her young age, I assumed that she was just much more talented for alchemy than I was, and that was quite all right. Besides, bending over a table for a long time and using my large paw like hands for delicate tasks was not something I enjoyed doing anyway.

Meanwhile the others had made sure that there was no enemy in this section of the cave, and we had also looked around to make sure that we had not missed any valuable loot; however, there was not much of value around here in this section of the cave. We found a way forward, with a short and narrow passage opening up into another cavern, and a couple of Falmer waited for us there. They were about to use their bows, but Hanni and Nanni and Spirit were on them quickly and distracted them sufficiently for us to approach and cut them down. The room had a few big chests, and we picked only the most valuable items from them. There was no sense in weighing ourselves down at this time; this had been a lesson for me at least since Bleak Falls Barrow. In the game, you could carry a lot of stuff, and I remembered one of my longer runs where I had had a carry capacity of much more than 1000 units at the end, also boosted by a mod. A full set of ebony armor, for instance, had a weight of less than one hundred units, and this had helped a lot to carry almost all of the loot around until one got a chance to visit one's home again. Now, I had learned that some backpacks had an enchantment to increase carry capacity, but still there was no way I could carry ten armor packs or even more, and one had to select what to take, for instance by estimating the best 'value per weight' ratio.

From that area there was another way forward, via a narrow passage leading down. After a few turns we noticed occasional chaurus eggs in niches close to the path, and I decided to pick up some of those, too. The special and custom made apothecary satchel I had recently been given by Mia was clearly enchanted; not only could I store many more ingredients in there than the tiny size suggested, but also the ingredients were kept safe and fresh for a long period of time.

Eventually the passage opened up to a kind of ledge, which was guarded by three Falmer; we had been reasonably quiet so far, and when we stopped before we got close to the Falmer gate there, they had not noticed us yet, so that we were, once again, able to attack with arrows and bolts. Similar to an earlier attack, two of the enemies were down right away, but the third one was more robust, and he turned around, cast some spell which almost looked like a ward, and attacked with another spell. We barely managed to duck in the narrow passage we had not left yet, but my next bolt hit the Falmer right in the chest, and Hanni and Nanni did the rest. We also could see some more Falmer at the opposite side of the larger cavern, but the range seemed to be too great for them to attack us here. However, they had clearly heard the fighting noise, and some of them went down some ramp; they probably knew how to get here. Nobody arrived after some time, though, so that we carefully proceeded to step on the ramp on our side and moved on, getting down closer to the cavern floor.

Once we were down and could not see any enemies, we looked around and found a way forward around a corner. Just when we got there, we were attacked immediately by a group of chaurus and Falmer. Retreating did not help much, as some of the chaurus could fly, and we did not have much of a choice and needed to make a stand. Farkas lead Erik and Ria into close combat, and their heavy armor should be able to protect them, while Aela, Irene and I found a place with partial cover and fired bolts and arrows as rapidly as we could. Irene first conjured her skeleton again, using a spell which was called 'Conjure Skeleton Marksman' as she had explained earlier, and then she blew fireballs into enemy groups whenever her magicka allowed us to do that; I did the same, but of course Irene's magicka pool was clearly much larger than mine, despite of all the practice I had had so far. Alternating magical attacks with using the crossbow worked fine, though. Spirit was ahead with the close combat fighters, and Hanni and Nanni did their best to distract the Falmer archers.

We were fortunate indeed that we had decided to explore that location in force; a smaller group would probably have perished right here and there. As it turned out, even with six of us we had to fight hard, and a few times Farkas and his group were pushed back, but finally the amount of bolts and arrows we were able to release made the difference, and more and more of the enemies were down on the ground. Some of the chaurus were really tough, and at the end a Falmer warlord or so and two high level chaurus beasts were the last ones being up against us. Irene and I coordinated our magic attacks and sent fireballs right into them, following up with bolts and arrows right after, and that finally killed the two beasts; Farkas finished off the last Falmer with a mighty swing of his greatsword.

Once we had made sure that no enemy was alive any longer in our vicinity, we checked ourselves for injuries, and we needed to spend a significant part of our potion supply for healing and curing poison. A rest was called for, and we concluded the healing effort with restoration spells cast by Irene and me.

While we still rested, I picked up a few more mushrooms from some corners, and then we looked around to see what we might have missed. We found some partially broken shell like objects, and Irene pointed out:

"Look, some of those flying chauruses came up from one of those – a chrysalis, or cocoon."

"So, do they kind of rest in there?"

"Like I mentioned earlier, some believe that they complete their transformation from ground based animal to flying beast in there, and when they're ready, they rest until either Falmer call them out or enemies approach."

Was that how it worked? Not for the first time I wished that I had paid more attention to those details when playing the game, but at least I had some knowledgeable companions around. Anyway, the other side of the area lead into another passage with more mushrooms, and there were a few niches on the sides, some of them locked with special Falmer gates. We checked all of them, and this appeared to be some main storage area; there were plenty of chests with various pieces or armor and weapons, some food, and some items which were probably stolen, a couple of niches also had some skeletons in them. The final niche was a much larger one, and it had two sections. The first section was occupied by a couple of chaurus, the non flying variants, and some of their eggs, and Irene declared:

"This is apparently a chaurus hatchery."

Naturally, we killed the two chauruses occupying the hatchery; they were of the non-flying variant. I collected some of the eggs and we destroyed the others. Further behind, in the other section, a few subdued shouts attracted our attention, and there were two people in there. Apparently, the two chauruses had prevented them from getting out, but a sturdy Falmer gate had prevented the beasts to grab them if they stayed in their section. We approached the two people; they were both Nords, a male one and female one, and they looked wary and exhausted. They told us:

"We are so glad that somebody is coming. We work on Battle-Born farm, and a few nights ago, I think, the farm was attacked, and three of us were taken away. The third person was dragged away and we fear the worst; we suspect that the Falmer feed humans to the chaurus beasts."

"Now, we will make sure that you get out of here alive. We could retrace our way back, but we need to find out if there are more Falmer and chauruses further down. Do you happen to know what's at the end of that passage?"

As we had expected, they both shook their heads; we'd have to find out how to proceed on our own. Aela asked further:

"Are you willing to proceed together with us? Can can you fight if necessary?"

The two farm people nodded, and one of them told us:

"If we get a chance to avenge our friend's death, sure. We need to get some weapons, though."

So, we were all in agreement that we could not leave without investigating more, and as both farm hands could fight, as most adults in Skyrim could, we first led them to the previous area where they helped themselves to some armor and weapons. Right there, two of us started to yawn, and Aela decided:

"Look, it's probably already late evening now, and we should use the opportunity and stay here for the night. This is a reasonable side area, and we will need to be well rested for whatever is ahead of us. Let's eat a quick supper and then sleep."

Hanni and Nanni would be excellent guards during our sleep, but nonetheless Aela decided to have at least one Companion awake at all times. Erik was excluded, and I quickly volunteered for the last shift, as I was an early riser anyway. As we had no watches and could see neither the sun nor the stars and moons, night and shift length would have to be estimated, but that would have to do. After eating, everybody found their bedrolls, and my saber cats happily got down next to me, one on each side.

When I was woken up by Farkas, who had had the guard shift before me, he just told me that nothing happened and that he'd slept enough anyway, so that he was going to stay awake together with me. Wasn't there something about werewolf Companions needing less sleep and not sleeping well anyway? As I did not officially know about the werewolf topic, I could not really ask, but maybe I'd learn more about that at a later time. The burly Nord was not a big talker and we spent what I thought to be a couple of hours standing and walking around, mostly in silence. Once he asked me:

"What do you think of Erik and Irene so far?"

"With Irene, that's easy. She seems to have a good sense for fighting, and her mastery of magic is, in my opinion, a big plus. She fits well into the team and does not try to pull any attention to her own."

Farkas nodded and replied:

"Yeah, I think so, too. Magic people in the Companions is something I'm not used to, but I get the point."

"About Erik", I continued, "I am less sure. He's certainly a strong and capable sword fighter, but a little bit on the forward side, almost reckless. Not sure if this is good."

"No, it ain't" the Nord responded. "Aela and I will have to observe him further, and we'll see."

Eventually Farkas decided that it was time to wake up the others. We shared a quick breakfast, taking advantage of the many supplies in the storage area here, and Aela mentioned:

"I'm kind of surprised that nobody disturbed our sleep. Not sure if this is a good or a bad sign."

She had a point; apparently, the Falmer had not even tried to assault us in here; was their attention focused somewhere else?

Moving onward and further down, we passed more niches with mostly storerooms, keeping equipment, food, weapons, and other stuff; once more, we only took the most valuable items to not overburden ourselves. On side passage led to another chaurus den; once we had killed the beasts in there, we found some bones which looked human plus one half-devoured corpse; this was likely the third person mentioned before by the two farmhands we had found, and it looked like their end had been a cruel one; we were not even able to tell if the person had bee male or female. Eventually the passage ended at a metal door. Over the last few dozen meters, the cave rock around us had also in some sections changed and was replaced by artificial looking walls, which I would not have expected deep in a cave. Farkas uttered:

"Dwemer architecture."

"What does this imply, Shield-Brother?"

"There is a good chance that there is part of a Dwemer ruin ahead after this door, and we might encounter different enemies, specifically Dwemer guardians."

I had not had a chance yet to see any of those and was kind of looking forward to such an encounter, but of course I asked:

"So, any advice on how to fight them best?"

Farkas shrugged, but Irene replied:

"Fire and shock spells should work; don't bother with frost. Depending on which ones we find, they may be quite strong in close combat, and I advise to get not too close, if you can manage."

We talked about what to expect some more, and eventually I carefully and slowly opened the unlocked metal door. Ahead the passage continued for maybe ten meters, and then it opened up into a medium sized room; I noticed some apparatus on the other side which almost made my blood freeze. I whispered to my companions:

"I think that this metal monster over there is a Dwarven Centurion. It seems to be not active right now, but I will almost certainly wake up once we get closer. I have heard that those centurions are incredibly strong fighters, and they can blow super heated steam clouds around."

Aela and Irene both nodded, and Farkas cautioned the others to stay put for now.

"We could try to stay here and use our bows and crossbows, and the centurion is clearly too large to get close to us in here in the passage."

"Yes, but if the monster manages to blow steam in here, we're toast."

"Not necessarily" Irene replied. "I can cast a ward keeping that steam out if needed."

"What about other enemies out there?" I asked.

"Can you sneak forward to check?"

That had been directed at me; I nodded and slowly walked forward, and I saw a platform above the centurion, connected to the lower level via a wider staircase, and there was a group of Falmer tents with four Falmer sitting around a campfire. I got back again and reported that, and I also asked:

"How did the Falmer manage to get up there without activating the centurion?"

"Falmer can sneak very well, and I am sure that they can move quietly enough."

"Is there a chance that the Falmer are kind of allied with the Dwemer automatons, so that the latter don't attack them?"

"Not impossible, but unlikely."

"All right, so what do we do?"

That was indeed a good and valid question. If we attacked the dormant Centurion, the Falmer were going to notice that and join the fight. If we attacked the Falmer, the Centurion would wake up and also attack us. So, what to do?

[Author's Notes: Indeed – what to do? Let's hope that one of them has a good idea.]