Chapter 50: Crowstooth

[9th – 10th of Sun's Height 4E 202]

Coming up from the Rift, our party had started to explore Arcwind Point; on the way up from the area of the former Imperial camp we had encountered a dragon, and further up Fiona had found a word wall. Exploring further we had moved towards a strange looking tower, but some people, including a weird acting Khajiit and a few Forsworn, had denied us access. We had fought our way in, but just inside the tower another Forsworn or Hagraven had showed up; she had outsmarted us and had managed to make us fall down into a trap by quickly pulling a lever; with another lever she made a metal grate slowly closing the pit.

This time, though, my reflexes were better than they usually were. Quickly I realized that Hanni and Nanni had somehow managed not being caught, and partially driven by the urge not to leave them alone up there I jumped straight up, caught the edge of the half-closed grate with my paws and swung my body above it; seconds later I stood next to the Forsworn. She had looked at my two saber cats who growled at her and had thus not immediately noticed what I had done; when she saw me, she uttered something which sounded like "impressive" and was about to touch another lever, but I caught her before she could do that. She kicked and struggled in my grip, but for such a situation my size and strength really helped, and I was able to bind and gag her; with my girls next to her and growling, she stopped resisting quite quickly. When she was safely disabled, I looked out for my own companions. I found the lever to remove the grate blocking the exit, but the bottom of the pit was still more than three meters lower than the ground I stood on, and the pit walls were vertical and smooth and thus not offering themselves for climbing attempts. Jordis had an idea:

"I can step on Lydia՚s and Iona՚s shoulders and thus probably get out, when you help me from where you are. I do have a rope in my backpack, and working together, we should be able to pull the others out then."

That sounded like a plan, and I nodded. I also had a rope with me, but it might be better to have a second person up here first just in case. As soon as Jordis had her feet on her fellow housecarls' shoulders, right next to one of the walls, she stretched her arms out, and I was easily able to grab them and pull the Nord up to me; her weight was, even including armor, weapons and backpack, likely less than half of mine after all. She dropped her backpack and soon got her rope out. I asked the three who were still down there:

"Do I need to pull everybody up or can I attach the rope and you do the climbing yourselves?"

Fiona wanted to know:

"How do we get Nymeria out of here?"

I had not thought about that before, but yes, her direwolf was down in the pit with her, and likely too heavy to be carried up by Fiona herself. While I found a hook further up, slung and knotted the rope around it and dropped it downwards, Fiona and Lydia worked on some kind of harness for Nymeria, using another rope. Iona climbed up by using her hands on the rope while pushing her boots against the wall, allowing her to kind of walk up the wall. Obviously, she had recovered well from her earlier injuries. With the direwolf made ready, the Bosmer tried to follow Iona's example, but she did not have the Nord's arm strength and struggled visibly; halfway she gave up and dropped back to the ground. Lydia suggested:

"Maybe you want to try again without your weapons and backpack, my Thane?"

Fiona nodded and delivered the mentioned items to her housecarl, and she tried again. Lydia pushed a little bit from below, and this time Fiona made it almost fully up; when I saw that she had reached her limit, I was able to grab her and pull her fully up.

"Sorry" she admitted; "I have never done something like that before, and it looked so easy when Iona did it."

Nymeria was now showing uneasiness, with her master being up and herself still being down. Lydia, being one of the few people who the direwolf allowed to touch her, quickly attached the rope to the improvised harness, and I started to pull, lifting the direwolf up and placing her next to Fiona, who removed the rope and the harness. I dropped the rope down into the pit again and said:

"Now let's see how Lydia copes with two backpacks and a double set of weapons."

The Nord did better than I had expected, but I could see that she had to push herself. Once up, she smiled, and I told her with a grin:

"Show off!"

"No such thing – solid housecarl education and training!"

"Right, Lydia" Fiona chimed in. "Don't allow this Khajiit over there to downplay your capabilities!"

Lydia was somewhat surprised to hear that, and she first looked at her Thane and then at me, and seconds later we all started to laugh.

"By the way, Balu" the Dragonborn added, "your jumping up before the grate closed was really impressive; that saved us all."

"Oh well, this Khajiit body of mine is good for something at least. As a matter of fact, I have to admit that I am surprised about my own reaction; usually I need more time to plan proper action in a critical situation. Maybe this was instinct kicking in…"

"Right, your big cat predator instinct" Fiona suggested with a smirk.

I grinned as well and added:

"But even if that had not happened, we could still have saved ourselves."

"How?"

"For instance, you blasting away the grate with your shout and we getting on each other's shoulders, potentially later when the Forsworn was asleep or so."

"Hm, maybe, yes, but it is also possible that this Forsworn had a few more tricks prepared. Maybe she had a sleeping potion or has ready for us, or worse."

"True, yes. Anyway, we are a good team either way, I think."

"Yes, it's been quite some time since I was almost scared by you and my housecarls called you just 'the Khajiit'."

"Yes, indeed, but I did make some mistakes, too."

"That you did, but not only you."

Meanwhile the housecarls had started to look around and were now ascending to the tower's upper levels. The building had looked to me like two towers side by side, from a distance, but it was really just a single tower. Slowly we followed the others upstairs, and of course there was some more fighting. This time the fight was over before I got there, and there were two people dead on the ground on what looked like the second highest level in the tower; there was a Hagraven and a male Nord in an armor I did not recognize. Iona told us:

"The Nord was already dead, and we managed to surprise and kill the Hagraven."

"So, what has been going on here?"

"We don't know, but maybe we can find some hints?"

That was a reasonable suggestion, and thus we started to search the place. Jordis and I went up to the top level, and as I had suspected, the view from there was nothing special, as the mountain peaks around were much higher than this tower. There was not much up here, but when we got down again, Fiona mentioned:

"Look, we found a letter on the Nord՚s body! Let's read it together!"

That we did:

Bounty Rumor has it that Forsworn raiding parties have been pushing further and further east, along the Jerall Mountains. The arrival of Legate Fasendil has prevented further incursions, but they failed to apprehend their leader, Crowstooth. While Crowstooth has been separated from her forces, she is believed to have fled with considerable spoils. In an effort to put an end to this threat, anyone killing Crowstooth may claim her stolen loot. Mercenaries, like infamous sell-sword Bjormund Wind-Strider, have been seen heading into the mountains beyond Darklight Tower. While they could be after the treasure, it is feared Crowstooth is gathering these forces for a renewed assault. We ask any capable warriors for their aid in dealing with this potential threat. Anuriel/Hemming Black-Briar

"Who is Legate Fasendil?"

"And who is Crowstooth?"

None of us knew that, and as we had seen enough up here, we slowly went down again, and on the ground level we realized that the tower also had a basement. Down another two flights of stairs we approached what looked like a prison area with three cells, one of them occupied. Inside was a male Altmer, and he seemed to be in bad shape. He was barely conscious, and while we tried to find a way to open the cell, he muttered a few sentences:

"The life of a soldier is full of hardship. That's nothing. But they send the Legion to places that've gotten too bad to be settled without violence. What's hard is seeing good people warped by evil. And I've seen the face of evil."

I wasn't sure if I wanted to hear more about that, and thus I asked what his position was in the Civil War and about the Stormcloaks; his reply was quick and clear:

"You mean Ulfric՚s so-called 'Stormcloak rebellion'? The Nord kings – oh, excuse me, 'Jarls' - they can't seem to control their own people. So the Legion has stepped in to keep order. Sadly, the Empire's stretched a little thin these days, and we've gotten very few reinforcements. So we've been forced to recruit locally. But rest assured, citizen. We'll put an end to this uprising... and things will get back to normal soon enough."

He had to cough a few times before he continued:

"Ulfric and his thugs are stirring up trouble for their own agenda. The Empire is the only thing keeping the Dominion from walking all over Skyrim. It matters little if some of the people here are ignorant to that truth. They are still citizens of the Empire. It's our solemn duty to protect them, until our death!"

His last word seemed to be the cue; he breathed hard one more time and slid down to the floor without moving again. It took us a few more minutes to figure out how to open the cell, and when we got to him, he was dead. Strange, an Altmer working for the Imperial Legion. As we routinely did, we searched his body, and we found some notes confirming that he had indeed been with the Legion, potentially commanding the camp we had raided before; unless the notes were not meant to be for him, this was likely the 'Legate Fasendil' who had been mentioned in the bounty letter before. There were also a few notes indicating that he was clearly not on the Thalmor payroll. But there was something which worried me, and I told my companions:

"Ladies, there is something I do not understand. This Altmer was apparently with the Imperials and has, judged by the other letter we found, 'prevented further incursions'. The other letter, though, is signed by Anuriel and Hemming Black-Briar, and at least Anuriel works for the Jarl in Riften, doesn't she? And Riften is under Stormcloak control."

Iona replied:

"Good point. Indeed, Anuriel is the steward to Jarl Laila Law-Giver of Riften. Hemming officially works for nobody, but I have heard people say that he's a 'spoiled brat' who follows his mother's word 'like a loyal dog follows its master'. But yes, Riften is firmly in Stormcloak hands, and what this legate tried to achieve is strange."

"And that Hagraven up there was, or rather is Crowstooth, I assume?"

"Probably yes. On the bright side, the letter clearly says: 'anyone killing Crowstooth may claim her stolen loot'."

"It appears that we indeed killed her, did we find a lot of loot?"

"Not yet, at least not much, but I believe that there is another room next to here."

I walked over there. The sturdy door was locked, but Fiona managed to pick the lock in a few minutes. The inside looked like the jackpot, and there were quite a few coin purses on the shelves, half open chests with various pieces of armor and weapons, and a table with a variety of gems and other small and valuable items.

"That's all ours?" Fiona asked.

"I guess so. I wonder if we should report this to Jarl Law-Giver?"

Iona hesitated before she replied:

"Maybe not. She may get the idea to claim part of it."

"But the bounty letter?"

"The letter was not signed by her!"

"Good point. But if we take even a fraction of what's in here, we will have to find a place to either store or sell it before we move on."

"True. We could travel back to Ivarstead and sell most of the stuff there."

"Ivarstead does have a general store, right?"

"You have not noticed?"

"No, I have not, because I have always been focused on the mountain when I was there."

"Of course they do have a general store, and they should be able to buy what we can take."

There were five of us, but we had to focus on the most valuable items, mainly the coins and gems, plus a few select armor pieces and weapons. The housecarls were a big help to judge which items were likely to get us the most money, also considering carry weight.

"Hey, maybe we should hire a cart driver and his cart to follow us, and we always load all of the loot on the cart."

"Sure, and next time we are in a cave or ruin, bandits steal all of that."

"Right."

I had read fan fiction stories with something like unlimited dimensional storage and/or enchanted backpacks. The former one I was quite sure did not exist here, but the latter one might be possible, at least for weight reduction, not necessarily for volume. After all, the apothecary satchel I had, the very one Mia had given me, was clearly enchanted, as it not only kept any ingredients fresh and protected them from mechanical forces, but also allowed for storing a much larger amount of items than the size would normally suggest. So, why not enchanted backpacks to increase carry capacity? I really should ask around for that, but for now, we did not have any of those, and we could only take what we could easily carry. When I searched the weapons once more, I found another crossbow and a large collection of bolts, which actually looked sturdier than the ones I had, and I took both with me. Coin purses alone totaled, according to an estimation, more than ten thousand, and the gems again at least that much. Fiona decided that I was getting two thirds and she was taking one third, justifying that:

"You are building that house also for me, and my special wishes cost extra. For now, I don't need much, and later we will see."

Our housecarls were not supposed to collect riches for their own, but I promised Jordis:

"Whenever you need some money for something personal, feel free to ask me for an extra allowance. I have no ambition to collect lots of personal riches, but I am really looking forward to getting my house completed."

"I will, my Thane, thank you!"

Fiona told Lydia and Iona the same, and we were about done here. However, darkness was close, and thus we decided to stay here for the night. The tower was reasonably well protected, and our three pets – Fiona's Nymeria and Hanni and Nanni – were sure sufficient to guard our sleep, so that a night watch was not required.

Before we left the place on the next day, we had to decide what to do with our single prisoner, the Forsworn who had tried to trap us in the pit.

"If we let her go, she's all alone now; what can she do beyond trying to find her way back to The Reach?"

"Good point; let's leave her bound, but in a way that she can free herself eventually; let's also make sure that there are no weapons around she can reclaim."

We did that, and just left her a little bit of food; all of the excess weapons we dropped into a small ravine outside, so that she could not easily claim one of them. Despite the need to find a merchant to sell our excess loot, Fiona insisted to take a different route back today, and I just nodded. We first went back to where we had come from, but rather than turning left to follow the trail down towards the former Imperial camp, we kept heading east.

There was still a cold wind blowing around us, and we made quick progress. A couple of times we saw a dragon in the distance, but it did not come close to us. On our way we passed some stone artifacts, including some kind of archway, but the path descended continuously, and soon there was no snow around us any longer and the temperature climbed. Further onward, the trail was blocked by a Shrine of Talos, and we all meditated and prayed for a few minutes. There were no Thalmor around here, as it appeared; maybe they did not even know about this shrine.

From the shrine, we needed to track back for a few minutes, but we found a small trail leading downhill to the north. The trail was steep and we needed to pay attention to where we stepped, but eventually we got down and found ourselves not far from the towers we had see from above before.

"What is this place?" Jordis asked.

"Based on the map", I replied, "this is Autumnwatch Tower. We may want to check it out; there might be a Word Wall around."

Fiona nodded, and we headed in that direction. We quickly searched the two towers without any significant obstacles, finding a few skeletons in various places.

"Maybe that dragon we saw before, the one we killed, prevented this place from being a good hideout?" Jordis suggested.

"Quite likely" I nodded.

From the northern tower we gained access to word wall, and the Dragonborn learned what she told us to be the first word of the 'Marked for Death' shout. She admitted that learning a shout did not necessarily imply understanding what is what good for, but the Greybeards would sure help her to understand when she visited them next time.

Now we were definitely loaded to the limit of our carry capacity, and we headed back to the main road directly, going northeast. Luck seemed to be with us today; right when we got on the road, we saw a group of people with some pack animals approaching. There were four people, and they looked wary when they saw us and kept their hands close to their weapons. Fiona did the initial greeting this time; she stepped forward, raised her empty hands and spoke:

"Greetings, travelers, and peace to you. We don't mean any harm to you; we are adventurers."

"Greetings to you, too" one of the other replied. "We are traveling merchants, but we always need to be on our guard, as there are dangers everywhere."

The Bosmer smiled and told them:

"Are you maybe willing to trade with us? It just so happens that we have some wares to sell, from fights we have been in recently."

"Depends on what you have, sure."

The merchants were still cautious, as we might as well bandits in disguise. They did not offer their names and did not want to learn about ours, but they opened their large cart. They insisted, though, that we all keep our distance from them and only one of us approach them with our wares; Iona handled that. We traded for quite some time, and at the end, when the merchants moved on towards Ivarstead, I was surprised to find out that they had had enough septims on them to buy most of our excessive loot. It was understandable that they had focused on items they expected to find buyers for, but the rest we could likely trade off in Riften.

[Author's Notes: Traveling merchants make sense, I believe.]