Chapter 30: Raldbthar - exploring

[15th of Second Seed 4E 202]

An impostor called Alain Dufont had been suspected to hole up in the Dwemer ruin Raldbthar, and a group of people from Whiterun had started an expedition to get him. We – Fiona, Ferwen and me with our housecarls Iona, Lydia and Jordis and three Stormcloaks, plus our four 'pets' – had managed to get there, and inside we had indeed met Dufont and his cronies. The leader had been more insidious than we had expected, and he had twice managed to evade us; somehow he had also been able to control some automatons, and we had lost two of the Stormcloaks to those. At least we had found some prisoners and set them free, and after a meal together, three of the people we had set free had introduced themselves as members of the Archaeology Guild.

We all spent sometime resting and getting some sleep, although we did not know for sure if it was really night outside; we didn't bother to send somebody out to check. Before sleeping, though, we double checked that all visible Dwemer constructs around us, specifically the ballistas on the gallery, were fully blocked and unable to fire, and to make sure, we even partially dismantled them. After another exciting day, I did not have any trouble falling a sleep quickly, and I barely registered that Ferwen found a place right next to me.

After another meal – as we ate after sleeping, we called it breakfast – our team of twelve people and four animals, excluding the former captives who were unwilling to explore further and preferred to wait and rest until we came back, discussed the next steps of the expedition.

There was a brief discussion about either following Alain՚s secret passage or proceeding via the 'normal' and obvious path, starting behind the counter in the large room where we had found the bandit boss, and we concluded that we needed to split up to cover both approaches and make sure that we didn't miss anything important. I was going to take Jordis, Ferwen, and the three archaeologists through the small passage, while Fiona with her two housecarls, Daeril, and the two other volunteers, Fargord and Ronuril, would take the main tunnel. Hopefully, we were going to find each other again further down, and we made sure that both parties had plenty of supplies, including potions. Those who did not want to explore could simply wait around here, hopefully in a reasonably safe environment, and at least there was plenty of food around. We knew that there was a small risk for those staying, but in an emergency they could fight as well, and despite thorough searching we had not found another access or secret door to this area, so that they should be reasonably safe here.

Once we had split up, my team I had entered the narrow passage Alain Dufont had used before, and we used torches to search the walls carefully; however, there were no surprises here. The prison area had been searched before, and we focused on the door Alain had been seen using before. This door led to another narrow passage, and after a few minutes of cautiously proceeding, we came upon a niche with a few shelves, and there were some supplies, including weapons and potions there; we had to assume that the bandit boss had taken some of them and was now armed and healed. This was not really a surprise; we had expected something in that direction.

The passage led around a few corners and sported a number of doors on both sides. We tried to open all of them, but did not bother with the locked ones for now. Those few we could easily open allowed access to storerooms and one living and sleeping area; maybe this was a special section not available to everybody. There was a small chance that more bandits were hiding behind one of the locked doors, but Hulbert Carter, the Breton, cast a spell and soon declared that there was no living being behind the doors, unless the rooms were larger than expected. I asked him:

"Did you just cast a 'detect life' spell?"

"Sure I did. This one and 'detect dead' are very helpful for archaeologists, as you can surely understand."

That I did, and I made a mental note to see if I could learn them, too. However, I was not sure if my own magical abilities were good enough for that yet. So far, I had mostly practiced restoration and destruction, and 'detect life' was an … oh, which category was that actually in? I asked Hulbert right away:

"Say, which spell class do those spells belong to, Hulbert? Are they Illusion spells?"

"No, they are both Alteration spells, B'lushona."

Ah, Alteration. I got my notebook out and found the earlier entry that two spells I had been using so far were in the same class, Oakflesh and Candlelight; however, I had not practiced them a lot, and thus I might not be good enough yet. However, I did not even know if limited expertise in a magic class was going to prevent me from casting the spell at all or maybe it was just going to take me longer to learn it, or maybe the spell was going to have reduced efficiency? Like for 'detect life', maybe I could detect living beings just within a much smaller area? I was almost sure that magic in the game did not work like this, but again, this was real Skyrim. Also, how could I know if I was like Novice, Apprentice or higher is some magic class?

More questions, but answers would have to wait. We sure planned to have a closer look later on, when we had located the bandit boss, but for now we followed the passage, and a few more minutes and turns later it ended on some kind of balcony overlooking a medium sized room; we heard voices – the other party was just entering through one of the doors below. We called down and met them, getting down using a wooden ladder, and the only way forward seemed to be the other door. One of the archaeologists opened it, and there was a long ramp going up for a change. Helvius held his hand up and looked around, and then he warned us:

"Look at that narrow gap between the stones in the center; this is a spinning blade trap, I believe, and we need to be careful to not trigger it. See, the trigger plates seem to be left and right, barely discernible, and located right where one would normally go. If we keep to the very edges of the ramp, as close to the walls as we can, we ought to be safe."

We did as he had suggested and hugged the walls, and we managed to get to the end of the ramp without triggering the trap. A door allowed access to another area, and as soon as we were on there, a number of Dwemer spiders came out from some of the metal fixtures on the walls; Helvius called the fixtures 'Dwemer Scuttles'. The spiders were joined by two Dwemer spheres, and we were busy for some time. The smaller spiders were not too dangerous, but the larger spheres were a problem, as I noticed when one got too close to me and I yelped when I was hit by a powerful shock spell. Hanni and Nanni were at my side and protected me, and while they could not bite into the automatons, they could at least push them aside with their paws, although they had to be careful to not also get shocked. Our large party managed to overcome the threat, and soon we could pick up what was left. The automatons had dropped a small amount of scrap metal and some oil, and the archaeologists took some samples.

"So, if Alain Dufont came this way, why weren't there any destroyed automatons around when we came here?" Ferwen asked.

"Maybe there's truth to the rumor that he can control some of them" I suggested.

"Or maybe he's got at least a way to make them ignore him" Daeril added.

"If that's correct, it would be helpful to know how for future explorations!"

"Indeed, it would, but I wonder if we will ever learn about it."

Once we had checked the area and made sure that we had not missed anything, we opened another door at the end of the area, and there was a dead end. Well, not quite, as there was a round section with a low stone barrier around it, and there was a large hole in the center. Was that a lift? If it was, where was the platform to use? Mila spoke up:

"Ah yes, this is expected. We believe that there is an area further below, and this is certainly a lift to get us there."

"But the lift platform itself seems to be missing!"

"Sure, because Alain probably used it, so that the platform is down there. I bet that we can call it up by using the pull chain over there."

Of course; in the game the lift platform was always there when you needed it, but in reality, if other people had used it recently, it would be at the other end. I stepped over and pulled the chain Mila had pointed out, and soon a deep rumbling was heard from below. Something moved, and a few minutes later the stone platform appeared and beckoned us. Mila nodded, we all stepped on it, and then the archaeologist moved the lever which was prominently positioned at the center. The deep rumbling started once more, and the platform slowly moved downwards, to an area which should be 'Raldbthar Deep Market', as Helvius explained.

"How do you know the name?" Fiona wanted to know. "There are no signs around, or are there?"

"We have studied some old documents before, and, as a matter of fact, if you look carefully, there are some occasional signs, but barely legible any longer and in Dwemer language; we can read some words of that language."

The ride on the elevator platform took some time, maybe five minutes or so. This was not a modern elevator, but on the other hand the vertical distance wasn't huge either, maybe one hundred meters judged by the passing of the walls around us. The platform was not fully enclosed, and one could even easily touch the shaft walls around without getting injured; our vertical speed might about a third of a meter per second.

When the platform finally arrived at the bottom end, we quickly stepped off, and there was only one visible way forward; an open door provided access to a ramp leading down. Same as one level higher, the area was dimly lit by Dwemer lights, and with very few exceptions all of those were still fully functional. When Helvius had looked at the ramp, he warned us:

"Look, there is this narrow gap in the center again; another one of the spinning blade traps!"

I nodded, as I had noticed that as well, and we pushed ourselves against the walls on both sides. However, about half way down, I got a feeling that one stone about one meter ahead of me looked slightly different from the others. A trap for those who tried to avoid the center? Maybe, so I warned the others, and we all jumped across the suspicious looking stone. At the base of the long ramp there was a large door, and when we were all together and Helvius nodded, I slowly opened it. We found ourselves at one end of a wide passage, with pipes on one side. There was a distance noise and some vibrations, and some of the pipes had narrow openings showing some orange glowing structures inside. At least some of those pipes seemed to function as heating pipes, and there were occasional openings radiating warm air. Either that system still worked after all of those years, well, more likely centuries, since the Dwemer vanished or somebody or something took care of maintenance; I did not know. Anyway, slowly and cautiously walking down the passage was so much more immersive than in the game. Besides the visual effects, we had the different air temperatures, the smells of stone, metal, oil, and more, we had background noise from the pumping system, and the only detail we lacked was proper music. I mused about all of that for several minutes, and if I had been here all on my own, I'd have felt very uneasy and insecure. Here, with great company and capable warriors around me, I was able to enjoy the expedition, at least mostly. However, I needed to focus again when we had arrived at the end of the passage and opened a door to the next area. Ahead was a huge underground chamber, and our location was close to the top on one side; the ground level was at least ten meters below us. There were five or six Falmer tents on the ground below us, and a couple of pens on one side. To even the odds, I conjured Spirit and sent her down, and soon the Falmer were alerted. The archers and I used our long distance weapons, and until the Falmer realized that they were attacked from above, more than half of them were already dead. The remaining ones started to use their own bows and spells, but we could easily evade, and a couple of minutes later nothing moved any longer down below. For a few seconds I had a conscience attack, as we had attacked first, but I realized that there was most likely no chance to negotiate with Falmer.

When we approached the two pens, I heard some hissing like noises, and I asked our housecarls with heavy armor to take front positions, while two archers, Daeril and I got ready behind them. Ferwen opened the first access gate, and indeed there was a chaurus in there. Before it could react, it was hit by a bolt, two arrows and a fire ball, and the swords swung by Iona, Lydia and Jordis did the rest. We did the same with the second pen, and we conquered that hall without any injuries. There were a few chests with various items, and we picked only the most valuable ones to carry with us.

When we were busy with finding the best items to take, there was suddenly a noise in a corner we had looked at before, and all of a sudden two more chauruses, the flying variants, were visible; we must have missed the beasts, or maybe they had been hiding well. Both of them took off into the air and started to spit poison in our direction, keeping us on the defensive for now. My two saber cats had been seeing chauruses before and thus kept their distance, and Nymeria and Ellie followed their example. I ran upstairs to try to find a good spot for using my crossbow, and the others mostly hid behind their shields, at least those who actually carried a shield. Those who were capable of magic tried various spells on the chauruses, but that did not have much of an effect; maybe they were at least partially magic resistant. Eventually I was able to release bolts in their direction and scored a few hits, but again, if they got injured, it did not show much. Fiona used the chance when both had just released their poison spits, stepped ahead and shouted 'FUS RO DAH!' right onto both beasts, and that at least blasted them into the wall. They were not dead yet, but Nymeria, Fiona's direwolf companion, jumped on one of the chauruses and cracked the beast's chitin or whatever armor, while Ferwen and Jordis attacked the other one. Nymeria had trouble on her own, and Fiona helped with her magic, which worked much better on a chaurus which was already injured. All of us working together managed to save the day, and once we had made sure that the two beasts were actually dead, we agreed that those two had been very high level and dangerous ones.

After a short time of resting, we finally got to look around and search the large room in detail, and in a corner we found a corpse on the ground; when we stepped closer we recognized Alain Dufont – and he was indeed dead. His body showed various injuries, and while we did not know where he had planned to get to, he had likely succumbed to the various Falmer and chauruses in that area. He had, as we had suspected, managed to gain some armor and weapons, and when we searched his body, we found a journal which also had a few maps showing where his special stashes were located. So, on one hand we failed to capture him alive, but on the other hand at least he could not trick us again. Ferwen mused:

"How did he manage to get that far just on his own, with all the Falmer around?"

"They killed him after all, at it seems, but you've got a point. Maybe he was excellent in sneaking and made a mistake at the end?"

"Or maybe he knew a way to calm the Falmer, like with a potion or a spell?"

"The 'Calm' or maybe 'Pacify' spell should work on some Falmer at least."

"Yes, but there's a limit to such a spell, and high level Falmer won't be affected, or at least not much" Ronuril, the female Altmer explained.

"Right, good point. So, maybe he used such a spell and hoped that all Falmer might be calm, but one or more of the higher level Falmer attacked him down here?"

"Yes, this seems to be a likely explanation, or maybe he ran out of magicka at the worst time" Daeril agreed. "Look around – most of the dead Falmer here seem to normal fighters, I think they call them 'Skulker'. But at least two are, I believe, either 'Nightprowlers' or 'Shadowmasters', and I am almost certain that even 'Pacify' won't work on them. I am not even sure if 'Harmony' could be used against them."

I had a different concern:

"Now we may ever find out how Alain was able to control some of the Dwemer automatons, right?"

Helvius shook his head and replied:

"I'm afraid not; that would have been something really fascinating to learn."

Meanwhile, Daeril stooped down to the ground and picked up a big warhammer, which we had not paid special attention to so far; he examined the weapon for some time and then told us:

"Look at this, I bet that this is Aegisbane."

"Aegisbane?"

"Yes, that's a special weapon which belongs to the Shatter-Shields in Windhelm. The courier from there got us a description, and it fits."

"It's enchanted, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is, but the charge ran out apparently; maybe that's one of the reason why Dufont didn't make it; the weapon was not fully charged, and he was too much in a hurry to do something about it. Oh, this weapon is real heavy; we should take it back to the rightful owners, but it's too heavy for me to carry around for long."

"I can take it" I offered and took the weapon from his hands, just with my left arm and hand.

"You make it look easy!" he mused.

"Well, I am not a big and strong Khajiit for nothing."

My body clearly had some advantages, and I was able to lift weights with one hand some others could not even lift with both hands. I so liked that!

[Author's Notes: Alain's story here is somewhat different from canon, but this is not a 'Let's Play' after all.]