Boots on the Ground Entry Three

Entry Three: Boot slays some boners and bandits!

“Traveler! Traveler!” He gasped. “I must warn you! Skyshroud Barrow is overrun with living skeletons. It is not the peaceful shrine it used to be.”

“You must be Darj. Captain Rana sent me to find you and to help with whatever has delayed you from returning to the village with your report.”

“Oh, she did, did she?” He asked eying me up and down. “A skinny little girl, a milk-drinker no doubt, we need an army!” He said, disgusted. Though I preferred tea I did indeed drink milk from time to time. I wondered briefly what Nords had against it?

“Listen Darj, I’ve dealt with skeletons before. I’m sure it’s no big deal. What’s stirred up the boners anyhow?”

“It stinks of Necromancy, this many restless dead. I was going to talk to the spirit of the Dragon Priest Haldrin, this is his resting place, but there are too many of them and they drove me off before I could summon him. I was hoping he could tell me what was going on and how to stop it.”

As a Dragon Knight, a rather loose designation assigned to anyone who had the inborn talent granted to the Dragon-born, I knew a little about Dragon Priests. They were leaders of a sect dedicated to the worship of dragons, though to my hazy knowledge it had been generations since anyone had actually seen a dragon. They were a temperamental bunch of bastards at best. I didn’t think dead ones would be any more pleasant.

“Fine.” I said with a decided lack of enthusiasm. “Tell me how to summon this spirit and I’ll see what I can do.”

Though he was skeptical of my success he told me how to summon the spirit and gave me the offering bag he had prepared. I had no idea what it contained and didn’t care to inquire. I left him there to warn off anyone else, consulted my map which now held a layout of the grounds, and noted the location of the proper altar. I would have to continue east then turn northward if I followed the paths which I decided I would.

A pair of skeleton warriors guarded the stairs I would have to climb to reach the next level. To spite being bone, a heavy attack from my staff seemed adequate to dispatch them, and my Spiked Armor spell protected me well if they approached too closely. I made my way apace, dispatching the skellies one or two at a time, warrior, mage, and archer alike, as well as gathering what I could from loot and resource. After turning the lone warrior protecting it to ash, I found myself before the altar and made the offering and short prayer that would summon the Dragon Priest. Haldrin gave me all the attitude and condescension I had expected, but he did affirm that a necromancer had indeed defiled his tomb, and then told me what I needed to do to broach the wards that protected it. A simple thing of collecting the whale, eagle, and snake tokens and placing them in the proper places. I checked my map and again their locations were clearly marked, so I planned my path accordingly.

The skellies were of little consequence as I made my way to the first token and I thought this was going to be way too easy. That was until I ran into the skeletal remains of Asward Whaleheart. An archer, he was much more robust than the other skeletons I had encountered, Stone Fist had little effect, and Spiked Armor did little to turn his arrows. I found myself roll-dodging and blocking what I could but it was a close thing before I managed to burn him to ash. I collected the whale token and caught my breath. The snake token was guarded by Autra Snaketongue, a warrior with two-hand sword, and he was as difficult to defeat as the first had been. Dodging or blocking his cuts as I could, the armor spell at least protected me some, but I needed more from my staff than simple light or heavy attacks, but that was not going to happen yet. Again, it was a close thing but the skeleton was reduced to a pile of bones, and I collected the token, and doing a quick inventory of body parts I was relieved to find them all present and accounted for. Galeg Eagletalons was a mage battle for the final token. I fared a bit better against him, my Stone Fist more effective against him as were my staff attacks, and as I recognized his other attacks, they were much easier to dodge. The last token was mine as the bones became a smoldering heap. Reaching the warded door was a relatively easy thing, and there was a Skyshard right out front of it.

Absorbing the Skyshard was an almost orgasmic experience. I also felt the flush that meant I had attained a greater awareness as well as greater physical and mental resources. Destructive Touch would give me the additional power I needed with my staff. Not only would it knock-back an attacker, it would also envelope them in a persistent flame effect for a time, further damaging them. I also added some magicka and stamina to my pools to power my attacks and give me a bit more energy to roll-dodge and block physical attacks, as I had quite depleted myself in my earlier battles. Feeling much better, the Skyshard even relieving the lingering effects of my dream, I felt more confident about my chances against whatever or whomever might await me in the tomb. I would have rather spent that energy with someone cuddly in my arms, but I hadn’t met anyone but Penny that fit that description.

I placed the tokens in their proper places which immediately dropped the wards and I entered the tomb. Haldrin’s shade appeared in that dark, gloomy place, offering his backhanded encouragement. I fought the urge to just walk out and leave him to the misery he so richly deserved, but I owed it to the people of Bleakrock to put this place to rest. At an altar in the center of the main room I saw the necromancer hovering over the remains of what I assumed to be Haldrin. Screwing up my courage, and winding up a heavy attack, I approached the tableaux. My ball of flame hit Severin Charnis squarely in the chest hurting him but he was far from defeated. The skeleton guard stood up from its kneeling position and started for me. I used my new staff attack on Charnis, and then on the guard, interrupting the spell of Charnis, and the skeleton was knocked back some distance onto its back. I popped my shield spell and hurled another fireball at Charnis, then another, before I was forced to block an attack from the guard. My staff took the brunt of the force disorienting the guard, my shield damaging it, so I followed up with another heavy attack that turned it to ash. Charnis then attempted to summon another guard, but I sent another blast of Destructive Reach at him interrupting the spell and followed it with another heavy attack fireball. Both were so effective; it took only a light attack to finish the job of defeating the necromancer.

“Good job worm!” Said the shade of Haldrin. “Now, destroy my body so something like this will never happen again!” I put my anger into doing just that. Threats removed I looked around the room. I felt I was justified in robbing this tomb of anything I thought might be of value, but I didn’t find that much. I did find on a table in the corner a letter addressed to a commander of the Covenant. It appeared that Severin Charnis had been banished from his home realm for engaging in necromancy, and given to the commander to use as he saw fit, to disrupt and destroy any Pact target he wished. Apparently Bleakrock was indeed a Pact target. I exited the tomb to find Haldrin waiting for me.

“The skeletons have ceased their aggression and are slowly returning to their graves. Good work traveler!” He said, quite pleased. I gave him the letter and sent him packing back to Captain Rana, assuring him that I would continue to look for other people of Bleakrock. He gave me some gold and his shield. The shield was well-made but useless to me for my personal taste, but it might yield some coin, or useful material in deconstruction.

There was a road leading north out of the Barrow grounds, that turned west, before looping around to the south and returning to the village. I decided to go that way as by the time I had gone that far, it would be time for a rest. The skellies that remained were standing around with their weapons hanging at their sides and paid me no attention as I left the Skyshroud Barrows.

Being near the north shores the wind of the water was bit sharper and I was glad that the path edged a little more to the south, so at least the vegetation provided a bit of a break from it. I was gathering as I went, of course, and was surprised at the varieties of alchemically useful plants that survived in this climate.

I was surprised to find a camp of people that were not reduced to fleshless bones. I approached with my hand raised in peaceful greeting. Most people gave warm greeting to Bards so I announced that to guard that stood at the entrance to their camp. Whether he did not like my look, or just had a bad attitude, I didn’t have time to debate as he charged at me with shield in position to knock me on my ass. I quickly sidestepped and flicked my Reach spell that sent him flying then blasted him with a heavy attack. Managing to find a note on his smoldering corpse, I read it. The letter had not been written by what I then understood to be a Frostedge Bandit, but by another named Bjorynolf addressed to his brother. Apparently he had come to destroy the bandit’s supplies in hopes of forcing them to leave, and had been captured to be held for ransom. Irked by the bandits for their warm welcome, I decided not only to free the captive, but destroy the supplies as well.

Living targets proved to be a little more robust than skeletons and much more active in attack and defense I found. My armor spell got much more use and I had to make much more use of my newly enhanced stamina to both block and dodge the bandits’ attacks. Though draining at some points, the supplies and bandits both succumbed to my flames, and eventually I found the captive chained to a post at the furthest east point of the camp. I released him and sent him to the village, not giving him much time to express his gratitude, accepting his coin and sending him on his way. I found myself near the tent of the bandit leader. It was more certain if I got rid of him that the bandits would scatter and leave the area than by just destroying their supplies. Njordunn Oathbreaker was bent over his papers at his desk. I caught him unawares and that gave me an advantage however short-lived. I was nearly short a life as well. He was stronger, faster, and smarter than the others, clearly the reason he was leader. Resisting my Reach’s knock-down power, he closed quickly forcing me to block and roll-dodge. Though my shield spell gave me some protection and damage, he almost shrugged off my light attacks and allowed me precious little time to get off a heavy one. The Fist, however, did its job and gave me time to down a potion that saved my life and added power to my spells. I gritted my teeth and fired two heavy attacks to spite his bearing down on me, and thankfully the second blast put him down, permanently. Exhausted, I still managed to quickly riffle through his tent, and then made my way through the woods to the road, where I rested for a bit. As I panted and recovered I considered the wisdom of exceeding the parameters of my mission. I had allowed anger and hubris to propel my actions, and it had nearly cost me the tenuous hold I had on life. Gathering what wit and energy I had left, I headed down the road and towards the village.

The southward trek back to the village was uneventful. The wolves I heard nearby had kept their distance and I sought to keep that safe distance as I traveled.

As I ate, drank, and rested by the hearth in the trade pavilion, those I had helped stopped by to again offer their thanks. This of course sparked the interest of those nearby who wished to hear the tale of my adventures during the first day of my time on Bleakrock. Being who I am, I told the stories in the classic epic style and they had hung on my every word, even those involved personally in the telling. Though here in my journal I tend to be factual and accurate, my tales were carefully told, and as some of the subjects were present, their actions were heightened and expanded to guard their egos much as they would themselves in their own telling.

Captain Rana was also appreciating of the omission of some of the more disquieting facts as well as my emphasis on her desire for the safety and protection of the people of Bleakrock and her role in it. She did point out that there was more I could do and I assured her that I would in the day or days to come. It was becoming apparent that Bleakrock was the focus of a concerted effort of the Covenant to takeover, and she had agreed that those details might have caused a panic. She continued setting up an evacuation plan, not for the first time either I gathered, to be executed when I had found all the missing people.

I also took stock of my gear. It had taken some hard usage, and not being the best in quality to begin with, it was a bit tattered and worn. I decided that in the morning I would take the time to make new and better things rather than to repair what I had, perhaps even putting on them what crude enchantments I could manage now that I had a better idea of what could be useful to me.

There were one or two offers to … comfort me under the blankets by the hearth that night. These I politely declined. It wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate the offer, but they were made by men. Men had their uses and I felt no animosity towards them as a gender, but neither did I feel any desire to share intimacy with them. There were a few of the women who had gathered to listen to me that had looked appealing, but none that had the look which would tell me that they might be interested in a bit of cuddling. Women in the wilds and outposts tended to be more geared to home and childbearing than the attentions of their own sex, though the occasional casual exploration was not unheard of. Instead I let the thoughts of Penny and my sisters ease me into my sleep, wondering what adventures they had found themselves in.

ForestLyle