Chapter 35: Hamvir - the key

[1st – 3rd of Midyear 4E 202]

About two weeks after we had been back from Raldbthar the archaeologists finally had their audience with Jarl Balgruuf the Greater coming up, and I had been asked to be there as well. During the last few days I had rested and been to school once more. The school year was already over, as almost all kids were needed at home on the farms and such, but the two teachers, Minolewen and Nazdura, wanted my input on plans for the next season, when children would be coming back in late summer or early fall. They had even suggested that I might make a good school teacher and they wouldn't mind at all if I joined them at least as part time help; together with Hanni and Nanni, this didn't appear like a bad idea to me, but at least for the time being I clearly had other priorities in life. Besides that, I had done some more jobs to earn money; after all, I needed many septims to get my house built, although my share from Raldbthar helped a lot.

Today I had been out for my morning run, very early as usual, and when I was back in the city, I met Helvius Schliemann, one of three archaeologists we had met in Raldbthar. He greeted me and suggested:

"B'lushona, good morning. I wonder if you might want to come with us to see the Jarl and introduce us? The steward told us that the Jarl would have time for us today."

"Sure, why not? Meet you up there, at the entrance of Dragonsreach, in about half an hour? I need to get breakfast first after my morning exercise."

"Sounds good, yes."

As usual, there were a few people who wanted to talk to Jarl Balgruuf the Greater and we – Helvius, Mila, Hulbert and myself – had to wait for some time, but eventually it was our turn and Irileth waved us forward. I did the initial introductions, and as the Jarl had already heard about the events in and around Raldbthar in general, from Daeril and me, he now listened to the story Helvius Schliemann told.

"So, if I understand this right', the Jarl asked after he had listened attentively, "you are looking for a base to do further studies and explore more Dwarven ruins, not only here in my hold, but all over Skyrim?"

"Yes, my Jarl, that we do. Not necessarily Dwarven ruins only, but mostly those."

"Let's assume that we find such a place which is suited to becoming your base, how would the hold and the province benefit from your activities?"

This was, in my opinion, a justified question. There was the Civil War around us, and Jarl Balgruuf could hardly afford to waste any available resources. Did Helvius have a plan? The lead archaeologist looked down to the floor, and after a break he admitted:

"At this time I can't promise specific benefits, Jarl Balgruuf, as I hope you'll understand. Once we have started to explore places, there might be options, but without a place to stay our choices are very limited. During the last few days we have studied local maps and talked to some people, but that has not given us any feasible options so far."

That was a typical hen and egg problem, wasn't it? With a proper place to stay the archaeologists might get a chance to show benefits for Jarl and hold, but they'd have trouble getting such a place without being able to show such benefits first. I wondered if I could somehow help, but wasn't sure about that. Above and beyond that, there weren't many Dwarven ruins in our hold, as far as I knew.

Jarl Balgruuf stated:

"According to what I heard, the three of you have been quite helpful in Raldbthar, and in general I am willing to honor that. However, my resources are limited, and we do have a Civil War ongoing, as you know. Once you find a proper place and can also demonstrate how your activities are beneficial to us, I will consider this concept carefully and see what I can do to get you going; I will even ask hold guards to keep their eyes open for options. That's all what I can do for now."

After a few moments of silence Jarl Balgruuf the Greater added, in a more subdued voice:

"Personally, I wish that I could do more, as I consider explorations fascinating, however, my hands are bound."

The audience with the Jarl was now over, without a specific agreement; while we slowly passed through the main hall of Dragonsreach, my sensitive ears could hear somebody saying "I used to trust our Jarl, but now, as he has allied himself with the Stormcloaks, he's outed himself as traitor; I hope the Empire is sending reinforcements to drive these heathens out of Whiterun". When I looked, the speaker was, of course, Olfrid Battle-Born, the patriarch of the Clan Battle-Born himself, talking to somebody I did not know. I recalled the feud between the clans Battle-Born and Gray-Mane from the game, one of them supporting the Empire and the other the Stormcloaks, and I hoped that the Gray-Manes were not going to cause trouble.

The archaeologists had already left the hall, and I hurried to follow. Slowly we walked down the stairs towards the Gildergreen tree, and the three archaeologists looked somewhat disappointed. They had probably expected the Jarl to say something like this, but I assume that they had hoped for more. When we got to the great tree, I suddenly had an idea and recalled something which had happened in the year before. I asked the archaeologists to wait here, while I rushed into Jorrvaskr and searched my small wardrobe where I also kept the few books I owned. I found what I had been looking for – the book 'Cats of Skyrim' by 'Aldetuile', the one I had found close to Hamvir՚s Rest some time ago, when I had been there with the Dragonborn and some other company end of last year. The book itself was not very favorable for various reasons, specifically as it sorted Khajiit and saber cats in the same category, but there still was the single sheet of paper with a few diagrams and sentences written in a language I did not know. I grabbed book and sheet and got up again, and I showed what I had to the three archaeologists while we sat down on one of the benches under the magnificent tree. I had been afraid that they might see that as totally worthless, but their reaction told me that this was not the case here. After a few minutes Helvius asked me:

"How and where did you get this?"

"End of last year my friends and I were in the area of Hamvir՚s Rest, and around dawn the Headless Huntsman appeared. He guided us to the place where we found this book and a few others in a chest, but as far as I recall mine was the only one with an additional sheet in it."

He nodded, and Mila explained:

"The text here is written in the Dwemer language, and we can read it, well, most of it at least."

"So, what does it say? Go there and find a treasure?"

I had been joking, of course, but to my surprise Helvius nodded and told me:

"Almost like this, my friend, indeed. If the information is correct, it shows how to get into some underground area, at least partially of Dwemer origin, and this is likely to result in finding valuables, too."

"Seriously?"

"Well, I can't be sure about the exact translation; it might not necessarily be treasure or something valuable, it could also be something very interesting or important, from a scholar's point of view. But anyway, can you show us the place where you got this?"

"Well, I guess that I can, sure. It's almost a day out of Whiterun, though."

"We may be wrong, of course, but such a dig might be helpful to show your Jarl how we might be able to contribute to the hold. If we find enough loot there and offer to give half of that and any future finds to him, that should be a good incentive, don't you think so?"

"If we find something and if it is enough, it should be, yes. But sure you don't just aim for loot, right?"

"Of course not, my young friend. Our primary goal is to find artifacts, knowledge, and any items we can learn from and potentially show as exhibits, to educate all those who are interested. However, any loot we can find will help to convince the Jarl that we earn a permanent residence in his hold."

"And if there isn't much loot to find there?"

"Come on, young friend, think positive! All of the Dwemer ruins we have been told about have, at the very least, lots of Dwemer scrap metal in them, and that alone if worth a lot. Add the drops from the automatons plus the occasional other loot, and this is likely going to be quite something."

"Or we just find walls and passages and nothing else, like because other people have already taken what they could."

"Yes, there is that risk, of course. However, most of the ruin robbers are kept away by active automatons."

"Good point. Anyway, I am getting curious myself, so why don't we have a look and see what we find."

"You've got yourself a deal, my young friend! Because it's been you knowing about the place and having the sheet with the hints, you'll get a generous percentage, of course."

I did not really like the idea of loot percentages, specifically related to archaeological explorations, but I understood that financing was an issue and science did not pay for itself. It was a pity, but such was life here. At least I hoped that we'd be able to clearly separate scientifically interesting material from mere loot; I also had to admit that chances to find normal loot, like coin purses, gems and such were usually quite high in any kind of ruins. I still did not understand the concept of having those items replaced after some time, but this was a world of magic and wonders, and maybe it was draugr and similar creatures either scheming to lure more adventurers into their realm or working to support their perished or dormant masters, or both.

Also, I would have preferred to stay at home for a longer period of time, after the extended expedition to Raldbthar, but I was really curious to learn what we might find, and there also was a good chance that we'd find enough valuables to make the trip count, not for personal enrichment, but mainly to push my house construction project. It shouldn't be that bad, I assumed; one day getting there, two or three days digging, and one day to return; no big deal.

We were going to be a smaller group this time, compared to the Raldbthar expedition. Ferwen was not interested to go; as a matter of fact she had recently kept her distance from me. I did not know if that was related to recent events between us, but she evaded any further talking about that. Fiona wanted to discuss details on the planned tower in my house with Jordis and the two Altmer, and thus she also preferred to stay in the city. However, when I told Kodlak about my plans, he asked for volunteers to join us, and Irene decided to come with us; naturally this implied that a part of my share was going to the Jorrvaskr community chest, but this was fair – after all I lived and ate there, for free.

We – Irene, the three archaeologists, Antonius, myself and the two saber cats – left early in the next morning, and just when we left the city through the main gate, a well known Dunmer stopped us – Daeril. He offered:

"Ladies, gentlemen, I have heard about the endeavor you are about to commence. I have one week vacation starting today, and I would very much like to join you, if this is all right?"

That was very much all right for us, and we welcomed him to our group again. Having both Irene and Daeril with us gave us additional magic power, if needed. As the Dunmer already had a backpack with him, we could start our trip right away. We walked in silence for some time, and a light drizzle did not really encourage much conversation. At the Western Watchtower we stopped for a quick break, and from there I decided to lead the group northwest and away from the road rather than following it; that should save maybe a third of the triangle via Fort Greymoor. Besides, as we were told, the bandits in Fort Greymoor had been aggressively patrolling the area and the adjacent roads recently. One of the soldiers at the watchtower was sure that an occupation of the fort by official forces was going to happen soon, not only as it might be needed as military outpost, but also triggered by the negative impact on trade the bandits had; that made sense to me, considering that the fort was right next to the main road between Whiterun and Markarth and also to Rorikstead.

Except for a few wolves we did not encounter any obstacles, and as I had seen before, in and around Raldbthar, the three archaeologists were decent fighters, too. For our lunch break the rain stopped, but started later again, when we passed Dustman՚s Cairn. We got to Hamvir՚s Rest in mid afternoon, and while no super strong draugr appeared this time, there were still several skeletons emerging from the ground when we approached. Irene took care of those quickly, sending a quick fire ball into each of them. Once this was done and no more enemy forces around, Helvius pulled the sheet of paper from one of his pockets to compare with the environment here. The three diggers got their heads together and mumbled something for some time, and eventually they moved to the left of the three niches in the wall. It had, like the right one, metal bars preventing further examination, and in my opinion there was nothing to even hint that any further examination was potentially a good idea. After a few minutes they managed to do something, and some of the metal bars retracted into the wall, so that a person could step into the niche. Hulbert did so, looked around and shook his head, and Mila got a pickaxe out, which he took and started digging. While Daeril and Irene watched with interest, I told them that Antonius and were going to hunt something; this was not strictly necessary as we had some supplies with us, but we had some time and were apparently just in the way here.

Hanni and Nanni had been getting much better in hunting, and they had learned long ago that we needed to share. With excellent teamwork between the two saber cats, Antonius and me we got a young elk, and I carried it back to where the excavation was going on. While Antonius started to skin the animal and extracted some large pieces for Hanni and Nanni, I was curious to see what had happened so far, and in the remaining daylight Helvius proudly pointed towards a few steps leading down. They had been covered by soil and sand mostly, but careful digging with pickaxe and shovel had revealed them.

"We will have to dig for at least a few more hours before we get anywhere, and we will continue tomorrow. What's for dinner?"

I smiled and pointed to Antonius, who was busy with the skinning process. We did not have a proper place for a campfire here yet, and it was also getting late for gathering firewood; thus we decided to eat from our supplies today. We did not have a nice place to sleep either, but the accessible niches at least allowed us to be protected from most of the rain. As we were in the wilderness, though, we needed to be careful at night, and although we had Hanni and Nanni, we were going to have a guard, changing every two hours. I volunteered to have last watch, and we went to sleep.

When I was woken for my watch by Mila, she told me that nothing had happened, and as the rain had stopped, I started to collect some firewood. The meat from the elk needed to be prepared properly, and Antonius and I would take care of that, after setting up a proper campfire, while the others continued digging.

After breakfast, the morning hours passed with digging; two of the archaeologists could work side by side, while the third rested. Right around lunch time the elk meat was ready, and we indulged, and then Helvius showed us what they had laid bare already:

"Look, at the very bottom of where we are, do you see the different color?"

"Well, yes, I do. That's not sand or soil, this looks like chiseled stone, right?"

"Yes, it does indeed, and at the very least this is a sign that we are making progress. We are fortunate that the staircase is only covered by sand and soil rather than rocks or so; this makes digging tedious, but at least not too difficult."

In mid afternoon they had excavated most of what looked like a very massive stone door. I might have been mistaken, but to me this looked more like the entrance to an Ayleid ruin than to a Dwemer ruin; I had seen many of the former in the 'Oblivion' game, but did not remember if there any were also supposed to be in Skyrim. I voiced my suspicion, and Helvius raised a brow:

"You know how Ayleid ruins look like?"

"Well, I have read many books, and some of them had illustrations..."

"But you have a point; this is indeed different from the entrance to typical Dwemer ruins, and it does resemble some gates into Ayleid ruins. This is strange, as the sheet you found earlier is written in Dwemer language."

"Isn't it possible that this place was built by Ayleids and later used and documented by Dwemer? The Ayleid time ended in the early First Era, while the Dwemer period lasted into late First Era, right?"

"Young man, your information is accurate, and you may have a point. So far, we haven't heard about Dwemer using Ayleid ruins, and we also haven't heard about Ayleid ruins so far north, but I guess that we may want to find out. So does anybody know how we could open that door here?"

"Maybe just knocking or speaking 'Friend'?

"Very funny – I don't think so."

I decided to try anyway and cold not resist the temptation to call out "Mellon!", but of course nothing happened. Of course not; this was not the entrance to Moria after all. I did not have any other ideas; the gates to Ayleid ruins in the game had mostly just opened when pressing a specific key on the keyboard, and I had not been exposed to real Ayleid ruins yet. As the others were looking at me oddly anyway, maybe doubting my mental sanity, I wandered around, and I decided to look at the other niches as well. The center one had been open from the start, and neither had the chest refilled nor could I find anything else of interest in there. The right niche was closed off by metal bars, like the left one had been as well, but I thought that I could see something mostly hidden by debris close to the back. While I was unable to find a way to make the metal bars retract, like the archaeologists had managed to do at the left niche, I managed to find a long stick, and after several attempts I was able to get the item out – it turned out to be a large, heavy and very old looking key. Proudly I took the key and presented it to the others, and Helvius told me:

"Young man, this was a bright idea and I commend you; if you continue like this, I may ask you to join us and become an archaeologist. However, there seems to be a major problem – we haven't found a keyhole yet."

That was a good point, of course. Once again I thought about another universe and another story, and I recalled a door at the side of a mountain, a Dwarven door with the keyhole only being visible under specific moonlight. Maybe we had something similar here, with either the lights of one of the moons being required or some other trigger? This was a magical world, too, right? I dared to asked the team if they had ever heard about keyholes only being visible under specific conditions, and Hulbert replied:

"Young Khajiit, you may have a point. Ayleid ruins are not our specialty, but we have heard something similar from colleagues. Why don't we wait for an hour or two; if memory serves me well, both moons should be up in less than two hours."

There was agreement on that, and the time was used for getting dinner. As soon as we got back to the dig, we patiently waited until the moonlight shone on the door. We were lucky to get both moons tonight and also to have mostly clear sky. Masser now shone its light on the door, but nothing happened. Secunda՚s light came half an hour later, and a couple of minutes after that there was some pattern forming on the door, with a slit which might match the key. The suspected keyhole was located quite high, but reachable for me; the key fit and I tried to turn it. Maybe age had set in or maybe it had been intended to be hard, but I needed to apply almost all of my strength to move the massive key in the keyhole. Something started to move, and a section of the door slowly swung inward, beckoning us to step underground. Helvius and Mila did go while the rest of us stayed for now, and after a few minutes the door started to close again. I was not worried as I still had the key, but I did not have to do anything, as the door opened again, and Helvius explained:

"There is a pull chain not far from the door on the inside, so that it can be opened. I believe that it might be best to move all of our stuff in here and rest for the night inside; nobody should be able to surprise us with the door closed."

"What about dangers from deeper down?"

"There is only one passage going forward, and we can block it with runes."

That sounded like a plan, and for sure Hanni and Nanni would also hear if something or somebody came up from deep down in the ruin. The air was a little bit stale, and we left the door open for some time to get more fresh air in before we got to sleep. What were we going to find tomorrow? New scientific discoveries, loot, friends, enemies or other dangers?

[Author's Notes: The sheet of paper was found in chapter 72 of book A. I assume that most readers get the hint about 'Friend/Mellon'; if you don't, feel free to PM me.]