Chapter 28: Raldbthar - getting in

[14th of Second Seed 4E 202]

A party of nine had started from Whiterun to apprehend an impostor called Alain Dufont, who was supposedly hiding in a Dwemer ruin called Raldbthar. We – Fiona, Ferwen and me with our housecarls Iona, Lydia and Jordis and three Stormcloaks, plus our four 'pets' – had found the place, but it seemed to be occupied by Pale hold guards and closed to visitors. That was odd, and none of us had heard anything about it. However, as both Lydia and Iona were convinced that the people were not really soldiers, Ferwen and I had approached them via a ravine and overheard some of their conversation, confirming that suspicion. Consequently we had overwhelmed the outside guards when night had started to settle in.

Our wager that the bandits would not leave the ruin during the night turned out to be wrong. In the middle of the night, or maybe very early in the morning, Jordis shook all of us and made sure that we were waking up, and we could hear some voices. Somebody commanded:

"Go now, you know where to go and what to do. Take your time and make sure that nobody sees you!"

Footsteps were heard on the stairs, and it sounded like a number of people were leaving; the remaining person was now apparently talking to what they expected to be the night guard. Fjagus, the Stormcloak soldier who was on guard at this time together with Jordis, had not only dressed himself in hold guard armor like the bandits had, he had also been smart enough to put some stones and straw together and wrap parts of an armor around, so that this could be mistaken for another person in the night and with little light. Ferwen was suddenly gone, and when the bandit stepped closer to the fire and started to notice that something might not be right, suddenly the Bosmer was behind him and attacked, grabbing his throat. The bandit was a tall and strong person, though, and Ferwen got in trouble, but her elytra was at her side in a moment and attacked as well, and Lydia was now there, too; together they managed to bring the bandit down, and a few minutes later he joined his friends in the tent, all bound and gagged.

Once we had made sure that the environment was secure and there weren't any other potential enemies around, Fiona and Iona moved closer to the door into the ruin, and they found that the bandit had left it partially open. That was our opportunity; most of the bad guys inside were likely to be still asleep. We quickly collected our gear, skipped breakfast, and started to move inside; Fiona asked before we entered:

"Should we worry about those bandits who left earlier? They might be up to no good."

Dariel, the Dunmer Stormcloak, responded:

"I believe that we better not split up, as we don't know what and who awaits us inside. Yes, they may be doing something evil, like plundering a location, but let's first conquer this place here and see if we can get them when they return."

This made sense, and I nodded while slipping through the entrance.

Once we were all in and the door was closed behind us, we entered a wide passage with a slight incline downwards. Dim lighting was all around, but the light sources were not immediately visible. Some pieces of scrap metal were on the ground here and there, but apparently those had been moved mostly to the sides, so that the central section of the passage was clear. That looked like the way to go, but after past experiences I was a little bit skeptical. If many bandits had their hideout here, or rather somewhere further down, shouldn't we better expect some traps? Both Jordis and Lydia had been educated on typical Dwemer automatons and traps, and the Stormcloaks in our group had some actual experience related to Dwemer ruins. When we slowly and cautiously turned around the first corner, Jordis held her hand up and pointed to the ground with her other hand. There was a slim long indentation right in the center of the next section of the passage, and I recognized it as part of a spinning blade trap. We had no easy way to find out how it was triggered, or at least none of us saw an obvious trigger plate. Thus, we decided to keep to the very edge of the passage, even though that meant carefully avoiding to step on some of the scrap metal pieces, with some of them looking like they were parts of destroyed automatons. We managed to not set off the trap, and then we turned around another corner. Right after the corner a person came in our direction, and he saw us at about the same time we saw him. He hesitated for a moment, not expecting any strangers here, and that delay cost him, as Hanni and Nanni both jumped him and had him on the ground within two seconds. With two growling saber cats right above him he did not dare to shout for help, and we could easily bind and gag him.

Now we had a chance to look ahead, and further down the aisle the direct way ahead was blocked by a flame barrier. Somebody had placed two skeever on a pole to get them roasted in the flames, but the meat seemed to be mostly black and no longer edible; whoever was in charge of cooking here did not do a good job, in my opinion. It seemed to be not easily possible to get through the flame barrier without getting serious burns, but maybe we did not have to. There was a passage branching off to the left, and this one was not blocked. We slowly moved along the narrow hallway until it opened up into a larger hall. At our end of the hall there were a number of beds, some of them occupied. A lone person was awake and doing something on a workbench, and he had his back to us and could not see us. With a coordinated attack we managed to subdue both the worker and the three sleeping people, and we now had four more prisoners. The hall extended further, and we moved on, until we came upon another intersection. To the right a short passage led to another hall where we could hear voices from, and straight ahead the way was blocked by a locked gate. I vaguely remembered something from the game and asked if somebody could pick the lock, and Fiona did this task. The lock seemed to be a high quality one as she broke a few lockpicks, but she managed, and we slowly climbed the stairs behind the gate. We were led to a platform overlooking the hall with more people in it; one of them was up and talking, another one was sitting and listening, and two more were asleep on beds. We decided to split our force; Lydia, Fiona and I were staying up here and getting ready with our bows and my crossbow, hiding from sight for now, while Jordis, Ferwen and Iona were going to enter the hall from the passage below, trying to look innocent and lost. The three Stormcloaks were going to wait below, out of sight from the people in the hall. The three ladies were supposed to talk first, but we expected a fight, of course. According to what I knew and what I had learned, bandits rarely surrendered, even when facing adverse odds.

So far, so good. A few minutes later the three warrior women, with the elytra nymph at their side, entered the hall below and got the attention of the two men who were awake right away. The one who was apparently in charge asked:

"Who are you and how did you get in here?"

"We are looking for somebody, and we wonder if we can find this person in here."

"And just who might that person be, if I may ask?"

"The name is, wait a second, oh yes, Alain Dufont, and he is supposed to be a good looking Breton."

"Good looking Breton, eh? I should have expected a little more than that, but oh well. Ladies, you have found the person you have been looking for – I am Alain Dufont!"

"Really? But they say that this person is a swindler and cheater and thief!"

"Oh, do they? I would rather call myself an artist, a con artist maybe. But why don't you make yourselves comfortable; you will be here for some time, I guess. Nice pet you have, by the way; I have not seen such an animal before, I have to admit."

"Right, boss" the other person nodded.

"Hm, what about taking you a prisoner?"

"Me, becoming a prisoner in my own fortress? How would you manage that? You realize that we outnumber you, right?"

"Do you, really?"

"Well, I guess that I better wake up my friends here so that can also enjoy your presence!"

Alain lifted a hand and opened his mouth, but Fiona used the opportunity to shoot an arrow right though the bandit's right upper arm. He yelped, and Fiona, Lydia and I now stepped forward with weapons ready, the Bosmer quickly nocking another arrow. Ferwen, Jordis and Iona suddenly had swords in their hands, and the bandits found themselves in a different situation than they had expected. However, the bandit boss was not giving up just yet. He suddenly jumped into a niche, and right before another arrow hit the position he was on, he managed to evade it and vanished through a hidden door he had somehow opened. Now I reacted, and with a huge leap I jumped down and after him; the hidden door was already closing, when I caught it with my arm and stopped it. I grabbed a piece of metal to block it and ran after Alain, and I noticed Ferwen right behind me. The others would be more than good enough to keep the bandits in check and bind them, and I ran into a passage with rough walls. I could hear footsteps ahead; Alain Dufont wore boots, whereas I ran barefoot. He had grabbed a torch from somewhere, and I could see the light from it well enough. Ferwen probably could not see properly in the darkness here, so that I slowed down and grabbed her hand. Finally the passage ended, and the bandit needed time to unlock and open another hidden door. He did not get enough time, and he had apparently not expected somebody following him that closely. I grabbed him, and when he resisted I pressed the arm with the arrow in it, so that he yelped again. While I held him tight, Ferwen searched his body and clothes for weapons and claimed all of them; when she was done, we bound the bandit's hands behind his back, Ferwen took the torch and we walked back to the others, more slowly this time.

Now we had more prisoners than we had expected; they were all bound, but we needed a place to keep them safe. Such a large group of bandits sure had prisoners of their own, but we had not found those yet. They could either be further down in the ruin or maybe in that area Alain had tried to escape to. Lydia suggested:

"The further we go down into the ruins, the more likely we will find intact automatons. I don't think that captives will be there."

"But intact automatons might be perfect guards for captives?"

We tried to get some information out from the bandit boss, but failed; none of us was a trained interrogator, and none of us was really ready and willing to apply torture. Finally, we agreed to investigate the secret passage first, the one Alain had tried to escape through. Fiona wanted to be part of the team going there, and Ferwen volunteered to go with her, too, saying:

"Ellie can go first and hopefully sense any trap."

"Ellie?"

"Oh, that's the name I picked for my elytra nymph."

"And Nymeria will sure notice if somebody tries to approach us without being seen" Fiona added.

Iona and Lydia both insisted that the needed to be with their Thane and were this also joining, so that Jordis, the three Stormcloaks and I were staying and in charge of the captives. When the three were gone, I investigated the hall in more detail, and I found an adjacent section with a kitchen and lots of food, too. As we had not had breakfast, I asked Jordis to keep watch, with my saber cats helping, and I got busy in the kitchen; the three Stormcloaks – Fjagus, Hiretta and Daeril – continued to look around and explore the vicinity around us. I did of course not have all of the ingredients and kitchen utensils I wanted, but there was bread, even white bread, and there were plenty of chicken eggs, plus some spices and much more. I had spent some time with Tilma and Hranura in the Jorrvaskr kitchen, and I managed to create something vaguely resembling French Toast. Jordis volunteered to taste first, and she liked it. I made a few more for Lydia and myself, and we indulged while we waited. I was really looking forward to get a house of my own with a fully equipped kitchen; I had liked to cook in my old life, and I liked to cook in Skyrim. It would be a challenge to work with different utensils and not having an electrical stove, but I had helped Tilma a few times, and I knew that I could do that.

While waiting I asked Jordis:

"I am curious about something, Jordis. You have warned us about several traps on the way in, and some of them were quite difficult to see. In how many Dwemer places have you been?"

"Just one, my Thane, but several times."

"Just one?"

She nodded, so that her blond hair bobbed up and down:

"Yes, indeed. Not far from Solitude, in the area of Clearpine Pond, there is a medium sized Dwemer ruin, and it has been used for training purposes for many decades. Hold guards are obliged to train there every few years, and housecarls in training sometimes join them. The traps reset on a regular basis, and some are carefully disguised by our experts to make finding them harder. Of course we have healers go with the guards, as sometimes there are accidents, but it is good learning."

Wow. I was not aware of a Dwemer ruin in that region, but of course this real Skyrim could easily have more of them than the vanilla game.

After our late breakfast I had Daeril going with me for a tour through this hall and the next, but always within shouting distance from the two housecarls. The bandits were not gagged, but did not have anything to say. A side room we had missed so far had a narrow creek running thought it, and it looked like this room had been used as toilet by the bandits. Somebody had even collected a large pile of linen wraps, and that had, judged by some of them piled up in a corner and looking dirty and used, being applied as toilet paper. Not for the first time I thought about the issue of proper toilets and accessories. I had a vague idea that something might be conceivable with Dwemer metal and technology, and the two Altmer working with me could maybe come up with something. A creek and linen wrap was a reasonable compromise, though, and we would use that for the same purpose, too. In addition I made a mental note to collect some of that linen wrap the next time I encountered a supply in some ruin; it was quite soft and more comfortable to use than the sheets of woven grass or similar I had used so far. Naturally, that was an aspect of life which had been totally ignored by the games, and I could not even recall a survival mod which had included regular toilet visits. I could imagine something like 'your bladder is really full...' popping up on the screen, though, and maybe seeing your own character jumping from one leg to another.

After what seemed quite a long time, the others came back, beaming and not alone; they had a number people with them, maybe about a dozen or so, and Fiona excitedly told us:

"Can you imagine, we found a fully equipped prison area. There are some smaller cells and three really large ones, suitable for like ten people or so together, and each of the larger ones even has its own water supply and food storage. The cells are done so that prisoners can supply themselves for at least a few weeks and don't require constant supervision and feeding!"

Ferwen added:

"We found those good people all in the cells there, but we have not had time to talk much."

Iona finally chimed in, too:

"There were a few traps there, but we were careful and could evade them; no problem. The elytra was really helpful, and it almost looked like she could sense traps."

"So," I asked, "is this area suitable for holding all of our own prisoners?"

Ferwen smirked and replied: "It sure is. We need to double check, of course, that there is no secret exit or so."

"Secret exit? In a prison area?"

"I don't think so, really, but we need to make sure."

She did have a point. After all, there had been a secret exit in a very specific prison cell in the Imperial City, and Alain Dufont seemed to be quite crafty. If he and his people had been able to create the prison area and possibly gained partial control of some Dwemer machinery, who could know what other surprises they had built in. Meanwhile, Fiona turned her head around a few times and finally asked:

"What's that smell here? That reminds me; I am hungry!"

"Of course; I will continue providing food right away."

I moved back to the kitchen section and hurried to prepare four more slices of French toast, one each for Fiona, Ferwen, Lydia and Iona. I did not actually mind doing that; doing some food preparation was a nice and welcome change from exploring and fighting. They indulged, and I also prepared additional ones for the people we had freed from captivity; most of them were not really hungry, though, and they claimed that, while the food in the prison area had been simple and bland, at least they had been fed. For now, we found a quiet side room with more beds, tables and chairs and a door, and we asked those people to stay in there until we had all bandits in a safe place.

[Author's Notes: I really don't think that there is a survival mod including the need to use a toilet, but this is kind of understandable.

BTW, Chapter 23 of the story 'A Silent Thu'um' by 'Universal lizard' has a very different and more scary approach to this place.]