The next morning was not quite as leisurely as the prior day. A quick early breakfast was had and they had the caravan loaded up as dawn had just started to arrive. Travius and Anaelle had decided it was best to just let everyone know about her. They figured with how large this

Payment was no one would be willing to forego their share over a vampire who had always been nothing but friendly and it was better to let them know in a controlled environment and not by accident in a tense situation.

Once the caravan had made its way out the main road Travius knew it was time to speak up.

"I'm sure everyone remembers our conversation last night at dinner. We're unfortunately going in blind but it's not like we've never dealt with that before. We've got some versatile skillsets here and we should be able to cover anything. We also have to tell you though."

He paused and looked at Anaelle not sure what to say, how did you tell people this? He thought to himself.

"So, Anaelle, well…"he stumbled his words and then thought to spit it out.

"Anaelle is a vampire." He blurted out.

She then smiled an exaggerated grin to where her teeth were showing and popped her fangs out.

The caravan went silent for almost a minute. Aratore froze, his eyes wide and mouth agape. The silence was finally broken by J' Zargo turning to Vhoryhyak.

"J' Zargo will take his payment in the form of credit at the frozen hearth if that suites you." And he began to snicker.

"Damn." Vhornhyak said as he crossed his arms and made a pouty face. "It was fifty septims right?"

"J' Zargo told you she wasn't a ghost you buffoon. He thought you were some hero princess from a children's book the shaman mothers read to him as a kid." J' Zargo smugly informed then.

Vhornyak seemed very disappointed. As if he genuinely thought she was a character from a childrens book.

"You had a bet about if I was a ghost or a vampire?" She asked and started to quietly laugh.

"J' Zargo didn't so much gamble as he just took the orcs money. J' Zargo has known for quite some time as does Yarwil. They do not mind, you are a good person so you are no threat. You are not alone at the college just so you know." J' Zargo said. Anaelle threw up her arms in disbelief. Two hundred years of learning to hide it and she found a group of people who knew and just treated it like she has a bad cough.

J' Zargo saw Aratore was still stiff as could be and was still staring wide eyed at Anaelle. He didn't seem like he was scared as much as just amazement. J' Zargo waved his hand in front of his face and it caused Aratore to finally blink.

"Woah" is all he said. He shook his head and seemed to snap back into reality.

"You did know vampires were real right?" Vhornhyak asked him

"Of course. I just never expected to meet one.

Anaelle is not exactly what I pictured. I didn't mean to stare." He said.

"Look kid, all those things you thought weren't real and you thought you would never see? Vampires, ghosts, zombies, spriggans, werewolves, all these beasts you thought were myth? They all exist and none of them are as scary as you think they are.

A group like this? We're always the most dangerous ones in the area. Remember that if we run into something supernatural out there. YOU are the more dangerous one. Keep that mindset and everything will become less threatening." Vhornyak said to him and then he pulled a sausage from his satchel and took a bite.

"Also. That long empty stare thing you just did was kind of strange and off putting. Just saying kid"

Everyone else nodded

"It was kind of odd boy." J'Zargo agreed.

Travius also responded "just a little"

Anaelle cautiously leaned over to him and put her hand on his.

"After we get done with this you can ask me all the questions you want sweetie."

He looked around at the rest of the group and saw that none of them were even in the slight bit concerned about a vampire sitting right next to them and that put him at ease.

………………………………………………………………………

NOW IS WHEN THE FUN STARTS KID

"This is as close as I can get you. The cairn is only a short walk from here" the driver said as the caravan stopped. The party all unloaded and grabbed their gear.

As Aratore pulled his bow he noticed it had a shimmer to it he never noticed before. Normally this would have of startled him but with everything he's seen over the last few days he just accepted to expect the unexpected. He noticed three small soul gems on the outside of the handle that weren't there before.

"Farengar, the court wizard was nice enough to recharge our weapon and armor enchantments last night. He noticed yours was bare so added a little extra to it." Travius told him as he reached out and was handed the bow. Travius then pointed to the gems.

"Notice how they are different colors? Push them in and each color gives yours arrows an elemental ability. Red gives you fire, blue gives you frost and the clear is a shock. Should allow you an option for anything." And then he handed Aratore the bow back.

Aratore took a moment to watch the rest of the group. An orc berserker, a master wizard, a fabled spellsword and a vampire shadowmage. All the power they had and he still had something to offer and they still wanted his skills. Needed it even.

"This is so cool" he said to himself as the group headed toward the ruin.

The walk from the road to the ruin was fairly short. As with most old Nordic ruins the entrance was recessed in the ground inside of a round stone circle with a winding brick staircase that lead to the doors.

The ruin was in the middle of a large plain which meant no vantage point to assess before heading in.

The group was still roughly ten yards away and they couldn't hear a thing.

"I believe this is where I come in handy." Anaelle said as she made herself invisible and slowly approached the top the entrance. She made sure to walk around the entire circle and found nothing and flashed herself back in and waved everyone over.

The rest of them followed her there and went down the winding staircase to find Anaelle at the bottom picking a chest by the door. She found the usual, a few pieces of gold and a rusted iron dagger no one would want.

They opened the door and walked into a circular room with several alcoves in the wall with draugr coffins. They were all empty. They've either been this way for years or they were recently awakened.

Everyone readied their weapons and inspected the room. Opposite the door was a narrow path leading further underground. They inspected the room for any useful items. A few alchemic ingredients often found underground such as fungus and imp stool that Anaelle gladly added to her satchel.

Travius knew since they were dealing with draugr his life detection did no good. He flashed himself with an armor spell as did J' Zargo and readied his flame in his left hand and his bound sword in his right.

"Be alert, the draugr can hide in much smaller spaces then you'd think." He said as the group carefully descended down the hallways. The hallway ended into another large circular room with a few tables and chairs and some empty holding cells that clearly had not been used for quite some time. It has also had the entrance to another hallway opposite the one they entered and a door to the right.

After seeing they were alone everyone entered the room and walked around to inspect.

"We're not just looking for loot right now. Look for traps, tripwires, bear traps, anything of that nature. But if you see anything that looks valuable by all means take it. Unless it looks like weird magic glowing stuff , then don't touch it until one of us looks at it." Vhornyhak told Aratore as they all inspected the room.

Aratore found an old weapons rack and a small dresser right next to it. The armor rack had nothing of use. Old rusted weapons more likely to hurt the wielder than the enemy. The dresser didn't contain much more than tattered old

Clothing. He did find a healing potion and a strange dark red liquid he had never seen before. It appeared to swirl with a faint glowing hue in the middle. This seemed like the exact kind of weird glowing magic stuff he was specifically instructed not to touch.

"I may have found something here." Aratore said.

Travius was closest to him and walked to him and Aratore handed him the bottle. "Vhornhyak said not to touch anything glowing."

Travius smirked. "Probably good advice. You sure did find something too. You found quite the novelty item." He said as he picked up the bottle.

"A company out of Cyrodill made these a few years ago. They put a small soul gem inside each bottle to make it glow. It never sold well because the gimmick didn't make up for the fact that the wine was terrible."

He handed the bottle back to Aratore. "Good find though regardless. A collector would pay good coin for this. I know they had a cherry flavored that was especially rare. What flavor does it say on the bottle? That label is still in good shape."

Aratore looked at the bottle and stared at the words. He looked intently and made mumbling sounds trying to speak the words. He then developed a look of shame on his face.

"These letters are very small" he said to try and distract from the fact that he clearly can't read.

Travius saw what was happening. "It's ok, Not much reason for literacy as a hunter from a small village is there?"

Aratore hung his head down in shame. "If it can't be found an a map then I don't know the words , no."

Travius put his hand on his shoulder and gave him a comforting pat.

"I only learned because I was in the right place at the right time. The big man didn't learn until a few years ago. If he can do it you definitely can. We'll work on it. Hang onto that bottle, it's a good money find if anything."

Aratore was still embarrassed but was re assured by the fact he atleast found something valuable. He tucked the bottle away as the group had cleared this room and moved into the next hallway.

This hallway was longer and had quite a few curves and as they neared the end they heard talking. Everyone stopped and Travius flashed his detect life spell and saw atleast ten glowing figures that appeared to be underneath them. One of which was quite large. He then saw two more which appeared to be on the same level on each side of the end of the hallway.

Anaelle got up in front of everyone and went invisible. As she approached the end of the hallway she swiftly pulled both daggers and extended her armed backwards and landed them through the faces of the two guards before they even knew she was there.

When they all exited the hallway they found a wooden drawbridge that was pulled up. The bridge ended at a staircase leading to a lower level. The lower level consisted of a large square room with benches and a few bookshelves against the wall. Two huge wooden doors were guarded by a loosely leashed frost troll.

The room was patrolled by eight khajit and Bosmer guards wearing heavy steel plated armor. Not an armor they recognized though. This must of been a mercenary group from outside of Skyrim.

They had been in enough of these ruins to know that drawbridge was their only access to the lower levels and lowering it would absolutely alert everyone beneath them including the troll

of their presence.

Vhornyak grabbed his hammer and had a look of excitement.

"No sneaking around now. Here is where the fun begins kid." He said to Aratore. He saw the lever for the drawbridge just behind where one of the recently deceased guards had been standing . The noise inevitably drew the attention of the guards in the lower level. Three of them immediately began running up the steps.

Aratore watched the guards from above and saw one of them run for a rope that appeared to be attached to something on the other side of the wall. An alarm. He pulled his bow and sent an arrow to the guard running for the rope. Right as he reached to pull the rope the arrow caught his hand and landed in a shelf on the wall behind it. He tried to reach across with his other hand and it suffered the same fate. The guard was stuck in the shelf and tried with no success to remove his hands.

Everyone else quickly ran across the bridge hoping to make it to the stairs to the lower level before the guards made it up to them. Vhornyak stood on the bridge and looked down at the thirty foot drop.

"A nice soft cushion" he said to himself and then He leapt from the bridge and landed on the trolls backs knocking him to the ground and causing it to make a pained roar. The troll used it powerful arms to lift itself up with Vhornyak still on its back. He managed to somehow remain in the trolls back.

"I already paid for this ride" he said and then took the handle of his hammer and put it across the trolls throat. He then drilled his knees into the trolls back and pulled on the hammer as hard as he could. The troll began to frantically panic and wildly swing his body around. It eventually fell to its knees and then Vhornyhak shoved all his weight on to it and it fell on its stomach. With one large grunt and a heavy pull to the hammer the trolls neck made a loud snap. The trolls roaring immediately stopped and its body went limp.

Aratore was still on the top level covering from the bridge and winced when he saw the troll fall down. Everyone knew the orc was strong. Seeing him choke out a troll showed him that he had no idea how strong the orc actually was.

From the staircase was a loud boom and then the three guards came flying out of the entrance with a ball of fire behind them. The combined power of Travius and J'Zargo created enough force that it sent the three bodies flying to the wall on the far end and all three bodies hit the wall with a large thud and left a splatter of blood behind them.

One of the guards came at Vhornhyak with an axe from behind. As he lifted his axe over his head aiming for Vhornyhaks back he was met with Aratores arrow through his head. He heard the body fall behind him and looked at Aratore. "Damn I missed having an archer" he yelled.

The party all finally made their way down the stairs and surrounded the guards. The five remaining guards formed a circle with their back towards eachother.

"They are already too late"

A Khajit said and they all Nodded and then used their tongues to pop out one of their front teeth and chomped down. They all made a gagging sound and began to foam at the mouth and then all dropped dead to the ground.

"Not even an obnoxious diatribe huh?" Travius said.

"None needed." They heard from behind and saw the Khajit with the arrows in his hands stuck to the shelf. "You're already too late." He then popped out his tooth but it fell to the ground.

Anaelle walkked over and picked up the tooth.

"Give it a nibble, whore. You've already too late anyway." He said to her

"Whore?" She said and then popped her fangs out at him. "I'd choose your words a little More carefully. I promise this can go much worse for you."

He started to laugh. "It doesn't matter. You're too late. You can bite me, you can burn me, you can have your ogre crush my head…." As soon as he said this Vhornyhak grabbed his head and slammed it into the wall as hard as he could, completely obliterating his head in a splash of blood and chunks that flung all over Anaelles face, hair and armor.

"Thanks, I will." He said

"DAMNIT VHORNYAK!" She yelled while wiping the blood from her face.

"Oh please, like you of all people have never been covered in blood before?" He said while handing her a cloth from his satchel.

She ran her hands down her hair and pulled out a large bloody chunk. She tossed it on the ground in disgust.

"I could have put a calm spell on him and made him talk. Instead I have cat brain in my hair!" She responded in a curt manner.

"He called me an Ogre!" He snapped.

"One swears, You are a three hundred pound child!" J' Zargo said to him.

"Enough" Travius said calmly but firm. He inspected the large wooden doors. The doors had no locks or handles. No puzzle or hidden compartment he could see. The door was designed to only be open from the other side.

Anaelle continued to clean herself up as the other three checked the bodies of the guards for valuables of any kind or a hint at how to access the door.

"Anyone ever seen this armor before?" Vhornyhak asked out loud.

"I have" Aratore said. "I've seen this crest atleast, in Valenwood. Never seen a Khajit wearing it before though."

"Mercenaries?" Vhornyak asked him.

"No, J' Zargo has seen this before in Elsweyr himself. This crest was flown by clans who support the Thalmor. J' Zargo has never seen this on armor before though. Not a good sign, A militia of non Altmer Thalmor sympathizers." J' Zargo answered.

Anaelle had decided she was as clean as she was going to get and walked over to Travius.

"Look around the edges here. You can see marks on the wall where hinges were removed and the wall looks reinforced. This is not the original door. It also contains some strong ward magic. I can't detect anything past this wall. Not as if no one is there, I'm being blocked. This makes me think trying to blow it open would only alert whatever is on the other side.

Whoever put this door up doesn't want anyone entering from this side at all. They didn't even leave a way to do it." He said to her.

"There is always a way. The Penitis Oculatus snuck in here somehow." She said

"J'Zargo might be able to remove the ward. In which case we can try and blow the doors down and fight our way through….whatever is back there." He called for the other three to come

To the door with him.

J' Zargo began to study the ward while

Anaelle began inspecting the walls. To her the bookshelves seemed to have no real pattern to how they were placed, seemingly just in random places and that made her suspicious. She tried to move them one by one but none of them would move. She would knock on the back of one and carefully listen to the sound it made looking for a hollow sound but found nothing.

J' Zargo continued to study the ward.

"The magical energy is strongest in the middle. The source is either projected to the middle of the door or is attached to it. No way of knowing for sure from this side." He said defeated.

"How did those imperials get in here" she said to herself and looked around floor for anything unusual. The floor was made of tiles and she noticed one that had a slightly different shade than others.

"Got it" she said as she she touched the tile and found it was loose. She removed it and saw a square tunnel underneath.

"I bet they don't know this is here." She said to group. "It's an air vent. These ruins are all crypts. The room behind that door was where the prepared the bodies, they put these tunnels to help move fresh air through. If they even know these vents are here they wouldn't cover them for the same reason. It probably has grates in the other side. That's how we get in." She said proudly as she started to crawl into the vent.

She looked at everyone and saw Travius. She could tell he was apprehensive but had no better option himself.

"I'll be fine" she said to him assuredly

"I know you will" he said as she disappeared into the tunnel. The vent was not quite tall enough for her to stand but allowed her to crouch. She pulled one her daggers out as a precaution against the good chance she would run into a skeever.

After several yards she saw some light and hurriedly towards it to find it was a grate. She could hear loud noises of people talking and walking. She peeked through the grate and saw several step over it repeatedly. Seeing as how much foot traffic was there she decided it best to keep crawling to the next stream of light she saw. She moved to the next grate and this one was missing a couple bars. Giving her enough space to atleast stick her head through. She looked through and saw what looked like the bottom of a table. She considered this a safe spot to stick her head out and when she did saw several sets of feet standing still all around the table. She may have been able to squeeze through this broken grate but the amount of feet around her showed she had nowhere to go from there. She continued to crawl to what was one last bit of light shining through.

When she approached the last bit of light she made of sigh of relief to see it was an opened access point like the one she entered from on the other side. She carefully listened and didn't hear any noise and made herself invisible. She slowly crawled through the hole and was amazed at what she saw. This whole room had been gutted and everything inside was replaced by several distilleries and tables with ingredients either being processed into the facility or weighed and put into their own containers. Close to fifty mercenaries consisting of Khajit and Bosmer all Wearing the same armor and crests as the guards they saw outside. Even more concerning was the five Thalmor Justicars slowly walking around monitoring.

She looked at the door and saw a large welkhan stone attached to the middle where a handle would be and two dozen soul gems spread out all over the walls sending power to the stone creating the ward. Absolutely no way she could deactivate that without getting everyone's attention.

She heard a bell ring and the Justicars yell

"Stop. Prepare for shift change. Squad three prepare for guard duty outside the door."

Everyone stopped what they were doing and several of the militia started to line up near the door while the Justicars searched their pockets for any stolen contraband.

Anaelle quickly jumped back into the air vent and moved as fast as she could to the other end to warn the others. Once she made it back behind the door she jumped out the access hole.

"They're coming!"'she yelled at the others.

"They are switching with the guards they had out here. They have atleast fifty soldiers down that I could see. They'll be opening that door any minute. Get ready!"

"How many were approaching the door?" Travius asked her.

"Eight plus a Justicar. The others are scattered all over the room at work stations." she said.

"Fifty you say?" Vhornyak stated with a grin.

"Sounds like the perfect time to test these gauntlets The college made us.

"Absolutely not!" J' Zargo yelled.

"Those are to save you from certain death, the reaction is too intense in good health!"

"You've seen how much I drink, you think I'm in good health? Besides, it's fifty verse five, sounds like certain death to me" he said and then popped the green Soul Gem out of the gauntlet.

As soon as the vial pierced his skin he felt a surge of energy and adrenaline run through him like he had never felt. It was even more powerful than an orc's berserker rage. He felt every muscle in his body twitch and refuse to remain still, as if they were all competing with eachother for the energy to flex. His heart began pumping so fast he could feel the blood flow through his veins.

He jumped up and down excitedly swing his arms and punching the air.

"This is unbelievable! I'm ready, let's goooooooooooo!" He yelled in a frenzy.

"We can take the men at the door with no real Challenge. Anaelle can go back in through the vents while the rest of us have their attention." Travius said as Vhornyak was still pacing and jumping around.

He stepped over to Vhornyak and grabbed him

By his face and forced him to make eye contact. He could see his eyes nearly vibrating and could feel intense heat radiating from the Orc.

"Hey! Stick with me and J' Zargo" He said. Travius could tell Vhornyak wasn't focused on anything and he looked like he was about to lose his mind at any second.

They could hear a clicking sound outside the door and J' Zargo and Travius could both feel the magical energy dissipate.

"About damn time" The Orc yelled

As he heard the door begin to open he ran as fast as he could towards it and leapt over the carcass of the frost troll.

One of the Justicars swung open the doors and all he saw in his vision was the biggest orc he had ever seen flying in the air over a dead troll hurling words him and panicked and immediately tried to close the door back. Right as the door was about to seal, Vhornyak smashed through the door with his shoulder and shattered it.

Eight militia watched in horror as he charged at them and swung his hammer. Hitting one of them with enough impact that it killed him

Immediately and knocked over the two behind him. The rest retreated back away from the door with the rest of the militia who all pulled their swords.

He paid no attention to his surroundings in this drugged fueled state he was in and just charged.

"Idiot." J' Zargo said under his breath.

Thankfully, The orc was atleast causing enough of a distraction that the militia and the Justicars weren't aware the others were there.

"You saw their faces, he has them afraid, we can exploit that. Aratore, just like the bandit cave, I want you to stick to the walls and cover us at range. J' Zargo, I want you to create an ice wall blocking them in, I want them to feel trapped so they poison themselves." Travius ordered as they all headed through the now destroyed doorway.

"I need to get close and I can turn them on each other." Anaelle said and jumped back into the vent so she could get behind the militia to hopefully get Vhornyak out the danger he foolishly put himself in.

The militia started to gather around Vhornyak. He swung his hammer in a circle and several of them in front backed away. Even seeing them all surrounding him he was too full of adrenaline to realize the danger he put himself into. He could tell no difference between fifty and five right now. All he knew was that he had been still for too long.

"I have to tell you gentlemen. I like to think of myself an open minded guy, but this is the ugliest orgy I've ever seen." He tauntingly said as he swung his hammer over his head and lunged at the crowd.

He brought his hammer down on the closest mercenaries chest, shattering it and knocked down several others the process.

The circled of enemies on him tightened as the militia grabbed at his hammer and ripped it from his hands. Several came in behind him and grabbed his arms and legs in an attempt to contain him. He managed to break his arms free before they all grabbed him again but the crowd became separated by a large explosion of embers.

They lost control of him and he jumped up

On his feet without using his hands. Something he could normally never do with his weight.

With the explosion distorting everyone he grabbed two of the mercenaries by the back of the head with his enormous hands and dropped to the ground and slammed their faces into the tile floor, completely concaving them in.

As soon as he jumped back to his feet he grabbed two set of spiked bone armor knuckles from his holster. He put them on just as a militia soldier jammed his sword into Vhornyak's side. The adrenaline kept him from feeling anything other than a slight pressure. The blade was merely three inches into his skin when it got stuck on the rigid design of the armor and he had no choice but to concede his sword.

Vhornyak grabbed the blade with his bare hands cutting his palms and snapped the blade in half.

"This bone armor is pretty cool huh?"

He then grabbed the one who stabbed him by the mouth. With a hand on both the top and bottom, pulled as hard as he could and the head snapped in half with a loud pop. The soldier fell to the ground with his exposed tongue twitching.

They had taken out quite a few mercenaries but Anaelle had clearly underestimated the amount of men in here. Travius entered the now scattered crowd and cast his sword to fight through the militia to get to Vhornyak who was again being mobbed by the militia.

Anaelle was able to jump from the floor vent in unnoticed in the chaos and was easily able to plant a frenzy spell on several mercenaries causing them to turn on their own men.

Aratore stayed to the wall as instructed and was able to move in and out of cover by climbing atop and behind the distillery equipment. With unmatched precision he was able to pick off his enemies in the chaos to keep them away from J' Zargo who was standing on the outskirts making a six foot tall wall of ice encircling the battle.

Travius had finally made his way to the center of the fray to see Vhornyak had lost his hammer and was fighting the mob of mercenaries with his fist. His long reach was saving him

now and he was able to land a blow before most could reach him with their swords.

He could see several wounds on Vhornyak that he clearly was not feeling as they should have been debilitating. The broken blade sticking out of ribs being the most egregious of the injuries.

With the ice wall fully surrounding them, Anaelle was finding it difficult to successfully sneak through people and had no choice but to pull her daggers and rely on quick jabs in fatal spots.

She managed to get behind one soldier and slash his throat. Just as she turned around she felt a horrible pain across her back as a sword barely penetrated her armor and left a painful slice across her back.

She turned around and pulled out her fangs and snarled at the responsible enemy and lunged at him. The unexpected sight of a vampire caused him enough delay that Anaelle was able to easily dig her fangs into his neck. She did not drink from him but took a ferocious bite and pulled with her a very large chunk of the throat.

The other soldiers seeing this gory display scattered in fear and confusion which left her enough of an opening to get in the middle with Travius and Vhornyak. There were twenty mercenaries left. They circled the three of them, you could tell from their faces that even with the numbers advantage, they weren't sure they could win this battle.

Aratore scrambled around trying to get on top of the equipment as the ice wall was getting so big that he could no longer get a clear shot.

"What is he doing?" He said to himself

"You told him to block the exit, why is he making a circle around us?" Anaelle asked Travius. She kept her fangs out and snarled at all of them to further add to their obvious fear of them.

Suddenly, Without any warning, Vhornyak's gauntlet potion wore off as quickly as it overwhelmed him. He dropped to his knees with a complete lack of energy. His muscles ripped and sore from over exertion. He immediately felt all the pain his body had been ignoring. His shoulder felt dislocated from slamming the door, his hands pulsated from slices in his palms he acquired grabbing the blade that was causing the most severe of his pain in his ribs.

"Trav, I don't feel so good." He said

He then lost consciousness and fell to the ground flat on his face. A large pool of blood

began to form from his ribs. Seeing him fall emboldened the militia and several of them charged at Travius and Anaelle.

"Duck!" Travius yelled at Anaelle

He then reached out his Arms and slowly spun around as large cones of fire protruded from his and scorched the soldiers surrounding them. Many more retreated but were trapped by the ice wall.

Travius flames had created enough distance surrounding them that J' Zargo snapped his fingers and then from the top down the ice wall turned into a blizzard like wind that swirled in a circle through the remaining militia. The air so cold that they were freezing in place. As more of the wall disappeared the air became colder and the wind so strong that it started to knock the frozen soldiers over and would shatter upon impact with the ground. The wall eventually found its bottom and the blizzard stopped.

Aratore had a view of the entire battle from atop the distillery and was still in awe at what he had just seen. He had never seen such powerful displays of magic and was truthfully a bit frightened.

The other three all quickly tended to Vhornyak. Travius used all of his might to roll the heavy limp Body onto its back. Anaelle pulled two healing potion from her satchel. She swallowed one herself to help Heal the wound she received on her back and tried to put the other into his mouth but wouldn't go down his non responsive throat.

"Idiot. What were you thinking!" Travius yelled trying to fight back tears as he tried the basic healing spell he knew on the orcs rib wound but it was not powerful enough to close such a nasty wound.

J' Zargo ran over to them and grabbed the gauntlet on his right arm and pulled the red gem out to activate the health potion.

"Let's get him out of this the same way he got in it."

His body started to push the broken blade out of his side and with an almost miraculous speed the wounds on his hands and side closed themselves and healed. His eyes opened abruptly and he sat up.

Travius stood up with relief but then quickly turned to anger at the orc and he walked off without even acknowledging him.

"I'm hungry" Vhornyak said and tried to stand up but immediately fell back down and created a loud fart. His muscles were too sore and weak to support his own weight.

Anaelle ran towards Travius and grabbed his hand.

"Hey, are you ok?" She asked him.

"Not the first time he's been reckless. Let J' Zargo tend to him. Let's look for anything useful and then destroy this place like the contract asked." He said coldly

"Does one have any idea how much time and resources went into making this potions? Those were not a drug for you to show off for our new friends." J' Zargo angrily scolded the orc.

J' Zargo found a chair and brought it to him and helped the orc to his feet and placed him in the chair. Vhornyak gave him an appreciative nod and then took a sausage from his satchel and took a bite. No funny quips and no attempts to talk sarcastically to J' Zargo. He messed up and made this more dangerous than it needed to be and he knew it and he didn't want to test anyone's patience with him. His muscles were still so sore he couldn't do much anyway.

Travius hadn't found much while searching until he found several shipping containers with finished product. He inspected them and noticed these bottles have the same skooma label they found in the ruin in The Pale. He checked more shipping crates and found ale and wine with the same label.

'Isles of Paradise Reserve Collection' they said on them. He took a couple bottles of each and closed the containers. He went over to where they had the raw ingredients. They found the usual ingredients but the moon sugar they were refining for the skooma seemed like it was pure to a level he'd ever seen before and he'd seen and done plenty over the years. He collected a small bag of it and continued to search.

"What do we have here?!" He said excitedly as He found several large bags and huge bottles of various drugs. Greenmote, wasabi, joy snow, bug smoke and Incense of Mara. He had seen and tried all of these before except for one. He found some type of dark blue powder he had never seen before.

"Quite the treasure chest of goodies you found here. This feast is going to be quite the party tonight" Anaelle said as she walked up to him and saw him loading several items into his bag.

"We should be able to relax this summer so I thought I'd keep it interesting for us. If I had known the Thalmor were manufacturing narcotics and alcohol we might have gotten along better. Look at all this. They have completely gutted everything in this ruin and replaced it with this manufacturing facility. This must of taken them years." he said to her and then walked her back over to the alcohol bottles.

"Have you ever come across this brand before? This is what the bandits in the pale were drinking" he asked her and handed her Ike the bottles he found.

"I sure have. We've been selling this at the Frozen hearth for a couple of months now. Some Khajit merchants sold it to us for quite cheap. Said they were trying to get their name out there. I wasnt particularly fond of it myself. Something in there tasted off to me but alot of people including Vhornyak love it." She said.

"It probably taste funny because it has one of these narcotics in it. There is a desk over there, I'm going to check it for documents. They've got several Containers of dwarven oil they were using for manufacturing. Start dumping it on the equipment and then we'll burn everything." Anaelle gathered the rest to start saturating and Travius looked in the desk. All the drawers had been opened and everything seemed empty.

He took a look around the room and noticed none of these bodies were Thalmor. When he opened the last drawer all he found was a note that said 'Too late'. He crumbled up the paper. The justicars must of left before they made it into that room and cleared the desk. Leaving him a note to taunt him.

The rest were finishing up dowsing everything and had placed a candle in a puddle of oil. Giving them time to leave the room and hopefully the whole ruin before it exploded.

Vhornyak was having trouble walking and Travius and J' Zargo had to both allow him to put an arm man over their shoulders so they could help him out. Not the first time they've had to do this but certainly the first time sober.

They made a quick pace to leave the cairn. By the time they made it to the draw bridge Vhornyak was able to move on his own and everyone hurried to the opening. They made it outside and started heading to the main road to meet the caravan when they finally heard a loud boom and the ground shook.

When they approached the caravan the driver looked fairly startled and was trying to call his panicked horses.

"Please tell me that was you." He said.