Chapter 51: Angarvunde - arriving

[10th of Sun's Height 4E 202]

Now, as we had met the traveling merchants after our exploration at and around Arcwind Point, there was no need to head back towards Ivarstead any longer, as we had been able to sell most of our excessive loot on the road. Although there had been quite some fighting in the last couple of days, at the Rift Stormcloak Camp and the area around Arcwind Point, we all were ready to have at least one more adventure before visiting Riften, or that was what I understood from talking to Fiona at least; our housecarls were, of course, willing to follow our lead. Thus, we headed straight for a place called 'Angarvunde', where I suspected another word wall to be located. Fiona seemed to be encouraged by her learning two shouts recently, and she was eager to get to and into another interesting location, word wall or no word wall. Whatever we might encounter should aid her to gain experience one way or another, and of course I'd benefit from gaining experience as well. In addition to that, it was always good to spend time working and fighting together with our housecarls.

While we walked onward, first off road and later on the main road to Riften, I first looked around a lot to properly appreciate the beauty of the Rift Forest, accompanied by nice forest smells. This was, clearly, one of the nicer areas in Skyrim to be in, from a nature point of view. I had already noticed a few times that the change of seasons on this planet seemed to be less pronounced than on Earth, but there were also some leaves with various colors on the ground; was this really an eternal autumn forest? I asked Iona about it, as she had grown up in the Rift, and she replied:

"You know, people who live here don't think about it a lot; we are just used to it. But you are right; most areas of The Rift don't have anything like a real winter with snow and ice, and many trees here do not shed their leaves during the colder part of the year. At least, not at once; they seem to drop them and regrow them over time instead, not just or at least not primarily in winter."

Was that possible? Leaf trees replacing their leaves over time instead of almost all at once? Well, I was not a botanist, and I was only really familiar with trees in and around Germany, where we had pronounced seasons, although there seemed to be less snow in winter nowadays with global warming going on. On the other hand, as this was a world filled with magic, maybe there was a spell on the area, to keep it like that, just like one of the special forests on Middle Earth, like Lothlorien or so. Maybe a master wizard, like the archmage of Winterhold, would know something more? Hey, the court wizard in Riften might know, and I continued to ask:

"Iona, as a scholar I am interested in such things. Do you believe that the court wizard in Riften might be able to tell me more?"

"Wylandriah? Well, she is sometimes … a little bit absent minded and confused. She certainly has a lot of knowledge, but it is not always easy to get her talk straight. It appears that she prefers to spend most of her time alone with her weird experiments, and somehow I doubt that you'd learn a lot from her."

"That's a pity, but thank you for telling me about her. Getting back to the leaves, do they show this type of color all year round? I mean, tree leaves in other areas are usually some kind of green, but in the Rift yellow seems to be more dominant?"

"True, yes, and they do show mostly yellow, orange, light brown and similar hues all of the time. What does it matter?"

It did matter to me, as I know that the green color was caused by the chlorophyll particles, which allowed plants to use sunlight to drive the chemical processes they used to get energy, using carbon dioxide and emitting oxygen. However, my knowledge of biology and chemistry was not good enough to know if the green color was mandatory or if some variation could plausibly exist.

Anyway, magic or no magic, proper chemistry and colors or not, the Rift forest was nice and very enjoyable for me, and at least for the first half of our walk, I let my senses revel in the abundance of input from all around. Then I recalled my intention to practice spells more, in particular those I did not cast on a regular basis. Conjuring Spirit, casting flames and healing came to me naturally, without really thinking about casting something, but all other spells I knew did require a conscious effort and some time to focus and prepare. With companions around, destruction spells might not be such a good idea; instead I decided to start with the Alteration spell 'Oakflesh'. For now, I visualized on oak tree and whispered the German name of the tree – 'Eiche' – and started from there. Of course, my companions soon noticed that I was doing something, and an active Oakflesh effect also made my skin appear in a slightly different hue. I mentioned some of what Irene had suggested earlier, and Fiona told me that she was interested in details, so that I explained:

"See, I know almost a dozen different spells, but there are only three I can really use quickly and without thinking about them. I would like to improve on that, and Irene told me that combining casting with words or imagining something related or both works for many people. So, for 'Oakflesh', I try to visualize an oak tree in my mind and whisper 'Eiche'. Not sure if this works for me, but I can practice this easily while walking at least."

"Hey, that's a good idea. I have the same problem, and 'Oakflesh' is also one of the spells I cannot cast without a conscious effort and really thinking about it. Do you mind if I try the same as well?"

"No, of course not. Irene warned me, though, that different people may prefer different ways to learn."

"Sure; let's try at least."

Judged by the looks our three housecarls gave us they were at least somewhat confused, or maybe they doubted our state of mind and sanity, when both the Bosmer and I kept walking, but whispered 'Eiche' every few minutes, often with eyes closed. They did not know the word, of course, but that did not necessarily make it better. For now, I did not yet notice a difference, but I knew that this might take quite some time, maybe days or even weeks. A few minutes later Fiona asked:

"So, once this actually works, this is like a Pavlovian response, right?"

"You paid attention at school, didn't you?"

"I liked school, I just disliked most of my co-students, or more precisely, they disliked me."

"And yes, that's what I understand; let's see if this works for us."

While walking on, with some distance between us, we occasionally looked at each other while casting, and it did look kind of funny, at least for others, I guess. That did not distract us from our efforts, though, and we likely contributed to the amusement of our housecarls and our animal followers.

The Nordic ruin was not far away at all, and we reached the entrance about two hours after we had departed from Autumnwatch Tower, in late afternoon. Fiona and I had cast 'Oakflesh' repeatedly, several dozen times, while whispering the keyword, but except for getting our pool of magicka almost empty, I did not notice any improvement yet. Fortunately, spell casting and waiting for my pool of magicka to refill at least partially did not require all of my attention, so that I could still enjoy the beauty of nature around me. Our housecarls and animals would sure warn us if danger approached, as they always did. Besides, as a welcome side effect, constant practicing of magic contributed to expanding one's pool of magicka, albeit very slowly.

The area around the entrance showed some broken stone arches and fallen masonry; there was a campsite, with a cooking pot hanging over a fireplace, with the fire gone out, though, a few clearly used bedrolls and even a table with four crudely made wooden chairs around. The table had some food on it and a journal, but before we could even think about reading it, a wolf pack approached from behind the bushes on the far side and attacked. Once again our housecarls were the quickest ones to react, next to Hanni and Nanni and Nymeria, of course, and once I got to draw my weapon and look around, the wolves were already all dead. Well, I had improved my fighting skills a lot, and when I was already in a fight, my reflexes had improved as well. However, in a non-combat environment, a danger suddenly appearing showed clearly that I still usually needed a few seconds to change from exploring to fighting; I was really glad that I was not alone here. Even Fiona seemed to make more rapid progress on those skills than I had done so far, and as far as I could see it, her reaction times had improved a lot. Maybe she learned faster because she was much younger?

Now, with no more danger around, we read the journal on the table:

The Journal of Medresi Dran

On Angarvunde: Whispers of this ancient temple have been few and far between, and most real knowledge seems similar to Angarvunde itself; buried and forgotten. Yet, every story or legend I hear all seem to speak of immeasurable riches found deep within. "Great treasure waits for the worthy adventurer," said one old fool after many false flirtations and tankards of mead. Though he may have been a nuisance, his information matches most of my research, specifically the location of Angarvunde. Tomorrow I will hire a mining team to assist me in my excavation and head towards the ruin. By this time next month, I shall be rich! - M.D.

All right, somebody searching for riches once again. But what made people leave notes around for everybody else to find and read, telling about treasures they hoped to find? Wasn't that an open invitation for others to get involved and claim those treasures for themselves? I also searched my memory for the name 'Medresi Dran', but came up empty; either I had never met that person in the game or, more likely, I had, but forgotten about it. Meanwhile, Lydia snorted:

"Immeasurable riches? Really?"

Fiona responded with a smirk:

"That sounds like that boss bandit in Bleak Falls Barrow, right? Arvel was his name, I believe. He also thought that he'd become rich by finding treasures in the ruin. He kind of spit that in our face when…"

The Bosmer stopped talking very abruptly, and she looked absent minded and worried for a moment. I could understand why; that must have been when Freya and her had been captured by the bandits under this guy, and they had been expecting death and, before that, rape. I did and could not know to what extent her housecarls had been informed on all details of what Fiona had experienced before she had been assigned Lydia, but that was not my business. Jordis was almost certainly too polite to ask, and it wasn't my task to tell, at least not the details. Quickly I tried to change the topic:

"So, somebody got some rumors out of a drunk person, and they are sure that they're going to be rich soon?"

Jordis nodded:

"Happens everywhere, though. I've seen that frequently enough also in Haafingar; most of the time, the adventurers don't come back. Truth to be told, some ruins do indeed have riches in them, and on occasion some people do get rich, or at least reasonably wealthy. It's really strange, if you think about it. I know about one Nordic ruin which was plundered once, and the people who had been in there claimed that they had taken everything of value out. A few years later another group ventured there, and they got a lot of loot out again; however, they had to fight hard for it; for some reason, not only the loot, but also the guardians had been there again."

Iona chimed in as well:

"Right, and I have heard about similar things here in the Rift, too."

"I have heard reports in that direction as well" Lydia added; "but not Bleak Falls Barrow, I believe, and we don't have that many ruins in Whiterun hold anyway."

I was close to responding something like 'respawning – of course', but that did not make sense in a real world. It had to be some kind of magical concept, and I briefly thought about what somebody had mentioned much earlier about draugr, worshiping some dragon priest or so and showing up again even after getting defeated. Did that include restocking of treasure? I mean, there had to be something – otherwise all interesting places would have been plundered already, like almost all of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, with the possible exception of anything protected by a dragon claw door. I offered a different view, though:

"Don't you think that this could also be a ruse?"

"What kind of ruse, my Thane?" Jordis asked.

"There could be bandits lurking inside, trying to lure hapless adventurers in, to rob them."

"This is also possible, true" Iona admitted. "We need to be cautious when going in."

"What we always do, of course" Lydia added.

The sun was already getting close to the horizon, and Lydia, being practical, suggested:

"What about we camp out here for the night and head in tomorrow morning?"

I was just about to nod when the door to the ruin opened and a person stepped out into the daylight, a female Dunmer with red-brown hair and red eyes. She looked surprised when she saw us around, and we hurried to offer a friendly greeting:

"Hello there, we are peaceful adventurers and just started to wonder if somebody inside might need a hand" Fiona said, while I kept in the background, not wanting to intimidate the Dunmer lady.

"Oh, hello, I didn't know that somebody was here."

"Well, we just arrived and happened to read that note. Did you write that?"

"Yes, I did. A few miners came here with me, but they ran at the first sight of danger. I was hoping to find some people to help in Riften soon."

That matched what we had read in the journal, and before we continued that talk, we introduced ourselves, just mentioning names; there was no reason to advertise that Fiona was the Dragonborn. The Dunmer told us that her name was Medresi Dran, and she explained further:

"My workers and I were excavating this old tomb when we opened a chamber full of corpses. The team took one look, and they turned tail and ran."

"Dead bodies don't usually attack – so why did they run?"

"Well, those dead bodies were kind of walking around again – draugr. In any case, if I can't get past the creatures in that room, I can't recover the treasure. I have tried to find another way in, around the draugr infested area, after the workers had run, but failed. I need more manpower."

Was there any effort on gendering or whatever the proper term was in Tamriel? Considering that everybody in our group except me was female, was 'manpower' really the proper word? Although, of course, the English language was far better suited for gender neutral words and expressions, very different from my native language, German. While those thoughts distracted me, Fiona suggested:

"We might be able to help you out here. We have also heard about riches to be found deeper down, and we could work together to defeat the draugr and whatever else we encounter."

"Say, that's not a bad idea. You look like you could handle yourself against these beasts." For that statement she looked at me specifically, which was not really surprising. "I'll tell you what. You help me get the treasure and I'll split it with you. Deal?"

"Deal!"

"Excellent. With my brains and your brawn, that treasure will soon be mine... uh, ours."

The Dunmer had not mentioned why she believed that the treasure was supposed to be hers; most likely she was just hoping for good luck to throw riches into her lap, preferably with others doing the dirty work. Still, she might have a good idea where to look, and it might not hurt to find out how much she knew. If she actually had a good lead, I wouldn't mind sharing anything we'd find. I had also noticed that she had not been specific about the sharing, and I suspected that she intended to claim half for herself and the other half for all of us. However, for now, Fiona asked:

"Would you agree that we start this tomorrow morning, after a good night's rest?"

"Oh, right, it's evening again, isn't it? One so easily loses track of time inside, but now, as you mention it, I do feel tired."

She yawned, and we started to set up camp. After we had shared our supper with her, we decided to have a guard during the night, mainly as we were not very far from the main road. Once again, our three housecarls shared that duty willingly, and I did not mind that one bit.

Before I got to sleep, I continued some of the thoughts I had started before. When I had mused about 'gendering', assuming that this was the proper term at all, I had realized once more that I was the only male person in our group. Was that coincidence? I mean, when Akatosh had 'hired' me, he had clearly stated that I was to assist a female Dragonborn, but there had been no specific mentioning of others to be with us. In the game, male and female housecarls were about evenly split, and we had just happened to gain Thaneship first in the holds where female ones were available – Whiterun, Falkreath, Solitude, Riften – right? On the other hand, I had a male housecarl, one which had not been in the game. For Fiona, I had a feeling that she was more comfortable with other females close to her, and for me, well, I had to admit that I enjoyed the abundance of females around me. That did not imply anything personal and romantic, but anyway. Hey, even my two saber cats were females, and at least with them I could cuddle a lot, like I had frequently done with my teddy bears in my earlier life. Mara and Dibella would not expect me to actually start flirting and more with one or even several females around me, right? Was that even a concept here in Skyrim, or would the average female person be much more impressed by combat skills than nice words? Adding to that, was any non-Khajiit female person even going to be interested in me? Observations in Whiterun had shown that some might be, but that was just looks. Comparing to another fictional world I was vaguely familiar with, many women were probably admiring and even ogling Gregor Clegane's body for size and amount of muscles and such, but would any of them be eager to do more? Well, at least I was reasonably certain that my character traits were much better than his. Thoughts like those bothered me for some time, and later than usual I finally managed to doze off.

[Author's Notes: Another interesting place to explore?]