Chapter 61: Heading out again

[19th of Sun's Height 4E 202]

Once again Fiona's path had started to separate from mine. While the Dragonborn and her housecarls had decided to stay in Fort Dawnguard for some more time and train with Isran and his team of vampire hunters, I had allowed myself to join an expedition to Dimhollow Crypt. Right like in the game, Tolan, one of the Vigilants of Stendarr who had survived the vampire attack on the Vigilants' Hall, claimed that a valuable artifact, one potentially vital in the fight against vampires, could be found in Dimhollow Crypt and that it was critical to be faster than the vampires to retrieve it. If things were like in the game, we should encounter Serana there, and I just could not resist the temptation to be part of the team finding her.

Inigo, my new found Khajiit friend, and Jordis, my housecarl, were of course going to be with me, and Isran had decided that Agmaer, a Nord who had only joined a few months ago, was going to join the team, representing the Dawnguard. The Redguard was unwilling to send more people to investigate a situation based mostly on rumors, and I could understand that; at this time, their numbers were still quite small, and they needed to focus on fortifying their new base and hiring and training more members. Agmaer had gone a long way since he had joined the Dawnguard a few months ago, and he had trained quite hard, based on what I had heard and seen; I was looking forward to working and fighting with him. Isran gave us the final words of parting:

"All right, now I can at least hope that you won't kill each other on your mission. I need you out in the field, taking the fight to the damn vampires, while we're getting the fort back into shape. Find what the vampires are looking for in Dimhollow Crypt and do what you can to come back alive! Be on your guard at all times. Avoid sleep if you can... Sleep is for the weak."

Seriously, Isran? Sleep is for the weak? I did not agree, but while I understood that sleeping was potentially dangerous, as it might allow enemies to approach unnoticed, at least I had my two saber cats to warn me if needed. I suppressed the urge to reply and just waved back to him, trying to show what I hoped looked like a friendly predator face.

I had taken my leave from Fiona already on the day before, as she did not intend to get up that early; she was not really a morning person. She would be just fine here at the fort, together with her two housecarls and Nymeria, her direwolf, and she'd decide on her own what to do next. Most likely, she was relieved to no longer have four predator cats – Inigo and me plus my two saber cats – close to her all of the time. Once she had told me about the time in a zoological garden, when she had been a young child and a tiger paw had almost touched her because she had been getting too close to the cage bars, I could understand her sentiment. Fiona and I might be something like friends by now, but she always tried to keep her distance to me and other Khajiit; I did not blame her for that, as I knew that it wasn't personal. Sooner or later our paths would cross again, and at least I hoped that I wasn't going to miss her first meeting with Paarthurnax, the expedition to Blackreach, and some other key parts of the 'main quest', which had played quite similar to the game so far.

On a sunny morning we left the Dawnguard headquarter after a quick and hurried breakfast, and now we had a better chance to look around and take in the scenery of the valley, as no dragon claimed our attention. As I had seen before, the fort itself looked less perfect than it looked in the game, specifically with some specific related mods I had grown to like, and it was quite apparent that maintenance had been neglected for a long time, maybe decades or even centuries. However, the basic structure seemed to be all right and durable, and such fortifications with walls likely more than one meter thick were built to withstand the tooth of time, after all. In a similar way, many castles and forts in Central Europe had endured for many centuries, and a significant number of those fortifications had only succumbed to bombs and artillery of the wars in the 20th century; in addition to that, unfortunately, a number of ancient buildings also had started to suffer from humidity and polluted air, also in some regions by too many pigeons. The central castle in the city where I had grown up had stood for almost exactly one millennium; as far as I recalled, it had been first mentioned in documents prior to the year 1050. Inigo seemed to think similar, as he exclaimed:

"Look at those walls, my friend! Can you imagine how many arrows one would need to even make a dent in them?"

"Arrows won't hurt them, but maybe magic could?"

"That would have to be quite a strong magic. Let's hope that our friends are safe here."

"They should be, Inigo, but eventually Fiona will have to move on."

"Yes, of course, doing her Dragonborn business."

We passed the open area between the first and the second set of palisades, and there were already a couple of tents with people there. Two of them, a male and a female Nord, nodded to us when we approached, and the female one said:

"I am Alvide, and my husband Barknar and I arrived here to see if there's work for us. They should need some people at least for ground keeping, janitor services and such, I guess. So far they have not really paid attention to us, but at least Barknar and I are here together."

I was not sure if Isran was hiring support staff like this, but Inigo found some nice words for them at least:

"Sure the Dawnguard will find a job for you, but they will have to organize themselves first. Good luck!"

When we moved on, I could see and hear some animals, a deer and a fox, on the right side of the path between the trees; by now I could identify a few selected animal species by smell alone, although I still needed to practice my senses more. Once again I enjoyed the sights and smells of nature, as I frequently did when traveling in my amazing Khajiit body. In general, it was not a good idea to get lost in that and not pay attention to potential threats, but with my companions and my saber cats around, I could afford to do some day dreaming. Besides, this was Dayspring Canyon, and there were no indications whatsoever that vampires had found the place yet, or so I assumed at least.

There was no need for us to hunt at this time, as we had food for several days in our backpacks; we had been allowed to restock to the extent we needed and wanted, thanks to a generous Isran, who had been glad to find volunteers for a task without having to send more than one Dawnguard member. Besides food, I had also been allowed to grab a few dozen crossbow bolts; I had almost run out before, and normal blacksmiths in the province didn't have them for sale, as it had turned out. The bolts were made of simple steel, without any enchantment, and I understood that Isran did not have a good weapon smith yet who might be able to forge higher quality bolts; if my memory from the game was correct, such a person might show later, or maybe there was a quest to locate them.

Soon we came upon the lake where the dragon had perished and I had cooled off from my burns, and we stopped for a minute to take in the scenery; the dragon skeleton was still there, and likely would be for some time.

"Look at all those fish in there!" Inigo pointed out, and indeed, the clear water allowed seeing quite a few of them, at least from the elevated position we were on, thus not being affected by the effect of total reflection when looking at water from a low angle. I had once learned at school about that – when looking at water, you could not see anything in there and there was only reflection if the angle was below a specific threshold – but I had forgotten what the value was. Oh well, that had been decades ago. Instead, I mused:

"Maybe I should have taken a rod with me; after all, I got my first lesson in fishing in the Riften fishery, even if I just took the book for Antonius."

"Well, you know, having a rod and seeing fish does not necessarily imply that both get together quickly; sometimes fishing requires a lot of patience, my friend."

"Not only that, but also some knowledge about fish, bait and such, I guess."

"So true, yes, and maybe also luck. Some weeks ago I overheard somebody in Riften mentioning that they once owned a lucky fishing hat, but lost it."

A lucky fishing hat? Seriously? But anyway, he had a point with the part about luck. I had never had fishing as a hobby, and I had only tried this a few times. During my long term delegation to the USA I had been on a social event once with colleagues and friends, and we had gone out to the Long Island Sound with two boats. When we had arrived at the fishing grounds, the people on the other boat had pulled out one fish after another, but we only got like two or three within several hours. Nope, that wasn't for me, but Antonius would probably like this lake here. While I lazily wondered if the Dawnguard members were actually eating fish or rather preferred meat, I looked to the other side, where the game had that raised wooden platform Dawnguard members could use for training, but it wasn't here; maybe it had not been there in the vanilla game, but in a mod instead. However, there was a small but sturdy stone building, and we had been told that this was used for weapon and equipment storage.

Getting from the fort to the passage which led outside took about half an hour; the valley was, of course, larger than in the game, like almost everything was. It should not be difficult for the Dawnguard members to be self-sustaining, if they wanted to be; there was a section with reasonably flat land and what looked like reasonably fertile soil, and they could probably even grow wheat and vegetables there if they wanted to. Maybe some of the people who came here for protection were willing to work some fields?

The entrance to the passage was, of course, guarded, and we stopped for a quick chat. Today Ollrod, a male Nord, was one of the guards here, and he told Agmaer:

"So, you are actually going to look for something we don't even know exists?"

"Brother Adalvald was sure that it exists" Tolan chimed in, "and this is good enough for me."

"Well, good luck then! You are going to find your way out, right?"

"Won't be my first time" Agmaer nodded.

I was reasonably certain that I would be able to do that, and surely Agmaer was fully familiar with the concept. This was a major difference to the game setup – here you did not just go through a passage and that's it, no, when you came from outside, you entered a cave. In there one not only needed to find a path which was easy to miss, one also needed to avoid various traps on the way. Apparently Isran hoped that vampires would not so easily be able to get in. At this time, of course, it was unclear if any vampire even knew about the place. At least the Volkihar vampire clan was located at the other end of the province, and maybe they had not learned yet that the reformed Dawnguard was active and where they were based.

Agmaer guided us out of the canyon and the cave safely, and soon we were back on the road towards Riften. While we walked towards the city, I initiated a discussion about the roads to take:

"So, which way do you want to use to get to our target?"

"I don't really care as long as we get there at all; whatever the quickest route is" Tolan stated, again showing that he was eager to get to the crypt and explore it.

"If nobody has a different preference, maybe we can pass my family's place?" Agmaer suggested. "I'd love to show my parents that I actually managed to achieve something. My pa used to say that I wasn't good for anything but farming, and this is clearly not true."

"So, where is this place?" Jordis asked.

"I was raised in Kynesgrove, and my parents and my brother and sister are still there and own and run a farm, just outside of the town."

"Actually, I like that. In order to get there, we will need to pass the area with the hot springs, and a nice warm bath will be just right." I responded to that.

"So, are we passing through Riften or stopping there for the night?"

"We need to hurry and not stop all of the time!" Tolan insisted.

I did not fully agree with him, but he had a point, and I added:

"Come on, this is going to be way too early for a night rest anyway, but it should fit well for lunch break!"

At this time, we were rudely interrupted by a call from our right:

"Will you look at that! The farm boy brought some cats and a pretty blonde with him! Shall we greet them properly?"

The 'greeting' was accompanied by some arrows coning our way, and one of them bounce off on my armor, while another one nicked Agmaer's skin. The junior Dawnguard member sighed and said:

"Not you again!"

Naturally, we all prepared for combat, right on time, as a group of bandits approached from a small fortified structure, which we had seen before; it was actually not much more than ruins. Several archers kept shooting arrows from the fortification, while four of five bandits moved towards us, with swords and axes raised. One of them, clad in what looked reasonably high quality armor, approached me and taunted:

"So, what are a few big cats doing here in Skyrim? Your fur will look nice in front of my fireplace!"

I did not spend any effort to think about a proper reply, as I needed to focus on defending myself. The Nord who attacked seemed to have some proper combat experience, and I struggled for some time, before I recalled that I might want to use magic. I cast 'Oakskin' on myself, which I really should have done earlier, and I threw 'Flames' at my opponent with my left hand. That did not cause much damage, as his armor covered almost all parts of his body, but I managed to keep the spell up for considerable time, and right when he was going to swing his large sword towards me once more, he shouted:

"Ouch! This is getting hot in here!"

All of a sudden he retreated and ripped some armor parts off his body as fast as he could. While I did not like to do that, I knew that I just had to use the opportunity, and as soon as he had his large chest armor piece off and did not look in my direction, I rammed my big axe into his chest, killing him instantly.

I took a deep breath, but did not get much time to look around or relax; there was some magical swirl around the corpse, and all of a sudden the body started to get up from the ground again. I heard Tolan shouting:

"There must be an evil necromancer around!"

Right, that seemed to be the likely explanation. While I was about to fight the same bandit once more, I heard a female voice to my left saying, with a kind of sultry voice:

"Now, farm boy, why don't you drop Pa's axe and surrender; if you behave, we might actually have some fun together."

That was apparently addressed to Agmaer, and I should ask him about that later. For now, we got some support, as Hanni and Nanni, who had been hunting on the other side of the road, came back and got involved right away. Quickly I conjured Spirit, and the three saber cats rushed forward, towards the structure, and started to pester the archers. Unfortunately I neglected to carefully watch the area around me, and almost too late I noticed another bandit behind me, having their sword raised and ready to swing it down on me. However, an ebony arrow pierced their sword arm, making them drop their weapon, and I realized that I had to thank Inigo for that.

Jordis was suddenly next to me and killed the injured bandit, and then we looked around. Agmaer was in close combat with a female bandit, likely the one who had taunted him; Tolan had rushed ahead, maybe to find and eliminate the necromancer, and Inigo was a few meters back, with his bow raised. While the junior Dawnguard member was apparently struggling, both from ferocious attacks and the constant taunting he was getting, another ebony arrow hitting his opponent helped, while my fellow Khajiit quickly sidestepped to avoid an arrow flying towards him from the fortification. Seconds later, though, I had some shouting, indicating that my saber cats had arrived there and now kept the archers busy. On our side, we weren't given time to also move forward; the female bandit fighting Agmaer was only lightly injured, but still able to fight, while another enemy approached me, lifting a large axe, almost as big as mine. I was still distracted by the raised corpse, although, fortunately, the zombie could not fight as well as the living bandit had been able to do.

However, the new enemy made the mistake to turn his back to my housecarl, and that cost him, as he was severely injured by Jordis, with her sword cutting deep into his thigh. He went down on his kneed, and my housecarl finished him off quickly. This gave me the opportunity to kill the first bandit a second time, and quickly Jordis and I looked around to if there was still danger close to us. Agmaer had just managed to disarm his opponent, and while the female bandit started to beg for mercy, her sword, kicked off by the Nord, flew in my direction and cut into my sword arm in passing.

"Ouch!" I cried out, but reacted swiftly and cast healing on myself. Of course, I just had to get my skin nicked again.

"Maybe you could have some fun with me? I'll do everything you want!" I heard the female begging.

"This is disgusting!" Agmaer shouted; there was a loud cry, and then there was silence. The arrows from the fortification had also stopped coming in our direction, and when I went there to have a look, I saw that Tolan had everything under control. Two people, a female archer and a man in dark robes, likely the necromancer, were dead on the ground, and male archer just got his hands bound by the Vigilant; with Hanni and Nanni close to him, he did not dare to resist. Jordis had joined me and started to examine the area for potentially hidden traps or so, and I took the opportunity to sit down for a moment. Once again we've had to kill people; they had attacked us first, so we had acted in self defense, but still it bothered me. When I heard somebody approaching, I turned around, and I saw Agmaer coming towards us, with another bound person. He explained:

"She almost drove me crazy with her taunting, and I was very much tempted to kill her, but I just couldn't when she was disarmed and helpless. She did not stop talking, so that I had to gag her."

Well, at least we had two prisoners alive, and I assumed that we could hand them over to the guards in Riften once we got there.

[Author's Notes: With interruptions like this, it might take them quite some time to get to and into Dimhollow Crypt.]